
aass_ 
Book_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




From the original negative taken from life by Brady, in 1864, now in the 
private collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York City 



REMINISCENCES OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



BY DISTINGUISHED MEN OF HIS TIME 



COLLECTED AND EDITED BY 

ALLEN THORNDIKE RICE 



NEW AND REVISED EDITION 




HARPER G- BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

MC M I X 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDi?s Received 

JAN 20 1909 

d-ASS GlJ XXc, no, 



4 %^^ 



U r "o| || ); jt H 



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Copyright, 1885, 1888, by Allen Thorndikb Rice. 
Copyright, igog, by Harper & Brothers. 



AU rights reserved. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. INTRODUCTORY i 

Lincoln's Life and Political Services — • Lincoln as a 
Story-teller — General Sherman and LiScoTn^^Thur- 
'Tbw Weed — McClellan's Views — McClellan and Lincoln 
— "I can Trust Phil." — Emancipation — Lincoln's Cab- 
inet — The Dispatch to Minister Adams. 

By ALLEN THORNDIKE RICE 

[Late Editor of the North American Review] 

II. LINCOLN'S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE . 67 

Lincoln in 1849 — David Davis's Court — What Lincoln 
Remembered of his Youth — Six Weeks of Schooling 
— What he Read — From Indiana to Illinois — Rail- 
splitting— Flat-boating — Nearly Killed by a Negro — 
"The Greatest Obstacle of my Life" — One of the 
"Long Nine" — Lincoln's Youth was Happy. 

By LEONARD SWETT 

[Practised Law in the Eighth Illinois Circuit with Lincoln — A Per- 
sonal Friend — Opponent of Slavery] 

III. POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS .... 8i 

Early Life of Abraham Lincoln — In the Black Hawk 
War (1837) — His First Political Success — Early Con- 
temporaries — A Strong Partisan of Clay — At the In- 
auguration Ball — On the Missouri Compromise (1854) — 
Lincoln Defeated for the Senate (1858) — President of 
the United States (1861) — Precautions against Assassi- 
nation — Mr. Blaine's Error — Would Not Decline a 
Second Term (1863)— The Fall of Richmond — "Mr. 
Lincoln has Been Assassinated." 

By E. B, WASHBURNE 

[Member of Congress during Lincoln's Administrations — Secretary 
of State and Minister to France under Grant] 



IV CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

IV. LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR ... 123 

"There Goes Old Mr. Lincoln" — He Likes the Atmos- 
phere of a Court-house — Lawyer Lincoln and "Cap- 
tain" McClellan — A Dramatic Scene — "Do you See 
that Gun?" — A Touch of Sarcasm. 

By LAWRENCE WELDON 

[Lawyer — Travelled the Circuit with Lincoln — Personal Friend — 

United States Attorney for the Troublesome Southern 

District of Illinois during Lincoln's Administration] 

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES AND 

THE GETTYSBURG ORATION ... 143 

Lincoln versus Douglas — The Time for Rebellion had 
Come — A Man of Strong Religious Convictions — Lin- 
coln and Everett — Sublime Faith in Republican In- 
stitutions. 

By HUGH HcCULLOCH 

[Banker in Indiana before the War — Comptroller of the Treasury, 
1863 — Secretary of the Treasury, 1865-69, and Again, 1S84-85] 

VI. LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION AND HIS 

VISIT TO RICHMOND IN 1865 ... 165 

The White Handkerchief — Notified of his Nomination 
• — " All Quiet on the Potomac" — Hearing of his Friend's 
Death — Before the Denouement — Five Forks — "Glory! 
Glory! Glory!" 

By CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN 

[Journalist — War Correspondent — Author] 

VII. LINCOLN AND THE CABINET . . . . i8g 

A Skunk Story — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — 
A Mast-fed Lawyer — The Master-mind. 

By TITIAN J. COFFEY 

[Assistant Attorney-General, 1861-63] 

VIII. LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 203 

Lincoln Believed in Protection — A Distinction and a 
Difference — Douglas Faithful to the Union — Deserving 
Davis — The Tribune Assails Lincoln — The Union be- 
fore Everything — Horace Greeley's Advice — Over- 
looking the Deity — Not to Be Bullied by Congress- 
Cabinet Differences — He Never Did Despair of the 
Union — His Faith in Grant. 

By J. P. USHER 

[Assistant Secretary and Secretary of the Interior tinder Lincoln] 



CONTENTS 



IX. LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAMATION OF 

EMANCIPATION 227 

The Famous Rail-splitter — The Tremendous Rush for 
Office — Anger against McClellan — An Inveterate Storj'-- 
teller — Why John C. Fremont was Not Appointed — 
Relations with Secretary Stanton — A Characteristic 
Anecdote — Unpopular with People and Congress in 
1 8 63 — How Music Affected Lincoln — His Great Re- 
spect for Horace Greeley — A Man of No Resentments — 
Opposed to the Proclamation of Emancipation — Issued 
the Proclamation Reluctantly — The Demand for the 
Proclamation Irresistible — Father Abraham his Proper 
Title. 

By GEORGE W, JULIAN 

[Leader in Free-Soil Party — Member of Congress during and after 
Lincoln's Administrations] 

X. SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS ... 247 

First Recollections of Lincoln — Organizing the War 
Democrats — "That's Right; God Be with you" — Strong 
Measures to Prevent Desertions — Giving the President 
a Guard — Playing Billiards with a War Prisoner — In- 
tending to Hang Jeff. Davis — The Commander-in- 
Chief Must Be Brave — " I Think I can Beat Butler" — 
As Merciful as he was Brave — Recommending Negro 
Colonization — Fearing Negro Guerillas — How the 
Panama-Canal Plan was Obstructed — Presidential 
Aspirations of Mr. Chase — Declining the Vice-Presi- 
dential Nomination — A Second Declination — A Matter 
of History. 

By BENJAMIN F. BUTLER 

[Major-General of Volunteers — Member of Congress — Governor of 
Massachusetts.] 

XL LINCOLN AND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 269 

First Sight of Lincoln — How he Received Political 
Friends — No Lack of Dignity in the Man — An Infiexi- 
■■ ble Public Servant — Sincerity toward his Cabinet — 

Down in the Wilderness — Profound Sagacity of the 
President — The Jacob Thompson Episode. 

By CHARLES A. DANA 

[Managing Editor of the Tribune — Assistant Secretary of War — 
Editor of the Suyi] 

XII. TWO STORIES OF LINCOLN 283 

Too Much Tail— The Dutch Gap Canal— I will Make a 
Fizzle, Anyhow. 

By U. S. GRANT 

[The Victorious Commander of the Union Annies — President of the 
United States, 1869-77] 



VI 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XIII. LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART . . 287 

A Touching Anecdote — Hon. Secretary Stanton — The 
Kindness of a Brother — A Sure Cure for Boils — 
" Floweth for the President" — Tribute to Horatio 
Seymour — A Just Decision. 

, By E. W, ANDREWS 

[Officer of the Union Army — In Adjutant-General's Office in Wash- 
ington — Lawyer] 

XIV. LINCOLN AND NEW YORK 305 

Dissatisfaction of Thurlow Weed — Not a Successful 
Impromptu Speaker — Did Not Know where Sherman 
would Come Out — " The Governor has a Pretty Good 
Case" — "On to Richmond "^Providence and General 
McClellan — A Grasp on Truth and Justice. 

By R. E. FENTON 

[Congressman — Governor of New York — United States Senator] 

XV. LINCOLN AND THE COLORED TROOPS . 315 

The Difficulty Regarding Colored Troops — Horace 
Greeley's Criticism on the War — A Presentiment of 
Lincoln's Death — Andrew Johnson — A Peep into his 
Soul — A Wonderful Address — A Sea of Beauty and 
Elegance— The First Great American that Drew No 
Race Distinctions — A Few More Inches to his Tail — In 
the Presence of a Big Brother. 

By FREDERICK DOUGLAS 



XVI. 



[Bom a Slave — Orator and Journalist] 

LINCOLN AND THE NEWSPAPER CORRE- 
SPONDENTS 



327 



Mustered in by Jeff. Davis — That Settled his Hash- 
Lincoln and Webster — The Mislaid Gripsack — " Reve- 
nons a nos AI onions " — Bull Run Russell. f 

By BENJAMIN PERLEY POORE^ 

[Journalist] 

XVII. LINCOLN THE MAN • • 343 

A Huge Skeleton in Clothes — President Lincoln a 
Sceptic — " Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud ?" 
— Was Lincoln Forgiving? — "Squealing Like Pigs" — 
The Owls in Epaulets — Lincoln No Abolitionist. 

By DONN PIATT 

[Judge — Charge d 'Affaires at Paris — Soldier — Journalist] 




CONTENTS 



Vll 



CHAPTER 

XVIII. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY 



367 



XIX. 




A Dangerous Animal— " Is thy Servant a Dog?" 

Every Way for Sunday — "You will Pass Bearer 
through Lines" — "Come Along" — Broken and De- 
spondent — Somewhere to Blow Off. 

By HENRY WARD BEECHER 

[Clergyman— Orator— Publicist] 

LINCOLN IN HISTORY 



375 



Lincoln, Next to Washington, the Greatest American — 
An Early Career of Vicissitudes — He Owed Little of 
his Success to Education — Interpreting the Will of the 
People by Intuition — Letter to Mrs. Bixby, of Boston — 
Ideas on Race Amalgamation — Campaign against 
Douglas — Logical Argument against Slavery — Not an 
Agitator — Hostility to Slavery in 183 1 — Democrats 
or Abolitionists — Effect of Public Opinion — Emanci- 
pation, the Last Card — The Proclamation to Follow a 
Victory — -The Unyielding Secretary Stanton — Why 
Meade was Appointed to Succeed Hooker — Capital 
the Offspring of Labor — Competitor for Fame with the 
Greatest Orators — The Oration at Gettysburg — Lin- 
coln a Staunch Partisan — None but Partisans Should 
Attain Places — A Great Historical Character. 

By GEORGE S. BOUTWELL 

[Governor of Massachusetts — Commissioner of Internal Revenue 

under Lincoln — Member of Congress — Secretary 

of the Treasury under Grant] 

"DEAR TO DEMOCRACY" 413 

Lincoln on Horseback — A Characteristic Likeness — 
How to Estimate Lincoln's Character — Lincoln Com- 
pared with Washington — With Shakespeare. 

By WALT WHITMAN 

[Hospital Nurse in the War— Poet] ^, 

XXI. "THE GENTLEST MEMORY OF OUR 

WORLD" 421 

Lincoln Not a Type— A Unique Man without Ancestor 
' or Successor— A Profound Observer of Human Nature 

—Polishing Pebbles and Dimming Diamonds — His 
Candor Deceived the Deceitful— Greatest Statues 
Need Least Drapery — Lincoln the Liberator. 

By ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 

[Orator — Lawyer] 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE 

WITH the passage of time personal recollections 
of Lincoln acquire a superlative value. His- 
torians and biographers must often write at second 
hand, but the personal quality of testimony given 
by associates and friends supplies the intimate touch 
and inner glimpse which make the real man live 
before us. 

In the present edition of this book, revised from 
the original volume prepared by the late Allen 
Thomdike Rice, the publishers have aimed to keep 
everything that contributes to a knowledge of 
Lincoln's personality. There are the recollections 
of lawyers who rode the circuit with Lincoln in 
Illinois, who heard from his lips the story of his 
life and listened to his tales before the fires of Way- 
side taverns. There are descriptions of his early 
political campaigns by men who listened to his 
speeches, and there are vivid pictures of Lincoln 
the President, Lincom in the Cabinet, Lincoln in 
the dark days of the Civil War, Lincoln at Gettys- 
burg, Lincoln the liberator of the slaves, and Lincoln 
the friend of the soldiers, — pictures sketched by 
friends, members of his administration, high officers 



X PUBLISHER'S NOTE 

of the Union Army, and others who were brought 
into close contact with Lincohi the man. 

It is the personal Lincoln, therefore, who lives 
before us in these pages. Critical history is not 
attempted, and there is relatively little formal eulogy 
save for the tributes of poet and orator which close 
the book. 



I 
INTRODUCTORY 



IT was mainly with the view of accumulating a mass 
of trustworthy evidence concerning the personal 
traits and private utterances of Abraham Lincoln 
that I conceived the plan and approached the task of 
uniting in one or more volumes the opinions of the 
most distinguished characters, still surviving, of the 
great war which produced them. The result has 
been gratifying beyond expectation, furnishing — I 
think it is not too much to say — a remarkable book 
about a remarkable man. 

Most men who visited Washington during the 
civil war met Abraham Lincoln. Amid the clash of 
armed strife and the din of party struggle, he never 
denied to the humblest citizen a willing ear and a 
cheering word. Although not " all things to all 
men," in the common acceptation of the phrase, there 
was rarely an hour too crowded for him to utter a 
memorable word or to tell an apt story to the passing 
visitor. By degrees and by accretion, these utter- 
ances and stories, or rather these parables, have 
grown in number with the growth of a great reputa- 



INTRODUCTORY 



tion. Story after story and trait after trait, as vary- 
ing in value as in authenticity, has been added to the 
Lincolniana, until at last the name of the great war 
President has come to be a biographic lodestone, at- 
tracting without distinction or discrimination both the 
true and the false. Talleyrand himself was not made 
sponsor for so many historic sayings as have fallen 
to the heritage of Abraham Lincoln. It may, in- 
deed, be doubted whether his entire presidential term 
would have sufficed to utter the number attributed 
to him. Yet it is certain that he rarely failed to 
seize an opportunity to illustrate the situation by a 
homely parable, which substituted a story for an ar- 
gument and left the argument to the listener's own 
deductive powers. He rarely refused audience to 
any one. He rarely declined to face any person or 
any situation, however annoying the interview or 
the occasion. He felt himself capable of confronting 
all the difficulties of his high place, and this faith in 
his own strength sufficed to guide him through some 
of the severest trials that have ever fallen to the 
lot of a public man. His many-sided nature en- 
abled him to excel in most of the tasks that he at- 
tempted, and the triumphant power he showed on 
most occasions was one of the essential characteris- 
tics of his nature. From a local politician and an 
obscure member of Congress, he suddenly arose to 
be one of the world's most influential statesmen. 



INTRODUCTORY 



3 



From a volunteer against Indian insurgents, he be- 
came the mover of vast armies, and met with firm- 
ness, patience and skill the most harassing exigencies 
of a great civil war. Beginning as a stump speaker 
and corner-grocery debater, he lived to take his place 
in the front rank of immortal orators. It was this 
power of compassing the most trying situations that 
made the brief and crowded space of four years suf- 
fice for him to accomplish a task that generations 
had been preparing, and which, to use his own words, 
before assuming the presidency, "offered more dif- 
ficulties than had devolved upon Washington." 

But, to struggle was not new to him. His whole 
life had been a series of obscure but heroic struggles, 
and it may safely be said that no man of Lincoln's 
historical stature ever passed through a more check- 
ered or more varied career. It fills one with aston- 
ishment to follow the vocations that successively fell 
to the lot of this extraordinary man, since, as a boy, 
in 1826, he left the school (to reach which he 
walked nine miles every day), to the sad hour when, 
in 1865, he perished, as President of the United 
States. Beginning as a farm laborer, studying at 
night by the light of the fire, he was the hostler, he 
ground corn, he built fires and he cooked — all for 
thirty-one cents a day. In 1827, he is recorded as an 
athlete of local renown, while, at the same time, he 
was a writer on temperance and a champion of the 



4 INTRODUCTORY 

integrity of the American Union. In 1830, we are 
told that he undertook " to split for Mrs. Nancy 
Miller four hundred rails for every yard of brown 
jean, dyed with walnut bark, that would be required 
to make him a pair of trousers." He next turned 
his attention to public speaking — beginning his 
career as orator standing on an empty keg at Deca- 
tur. Next we find him, in turn, a Mississippi boat- 
man, a clerk at the polls, a salesman, a debater in 
frontier debating clubs, a militia captain in the Black 
Hawk War, a private for a month in a volunteer 
spy company, and an unsuccessful candidate for the 
Legislature. In 1832, he seriously thought of be- 
coming a blacksmith, but he changed his views, and 
bought a country store on credit. Ruined by a 
drunken partner, he failed, but, as money came to him, 
he paid his honest debts — discharging the last note in 
1849. W^ next find him qualifying as a land sur- 
veyor, after six weeks' study. In 1833, he is appointed 
postmaster at New Salem, using his hat as a post- 
office. He was also, as occasion called, a referee and 
umpire, the unquestioned judge in all local disputes, 
wagers and horse races. Having read law, he became 
a lawyer. In 1834, he was a successful candidate for 
the Legislature of Illinois, and, as a member of it, 
protested against slavery. Challenged about this time 
to fight a duel, he became reconciled with his adver- 
sary and married Miss Mary Todd, after constitut- 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

ing himself her champion. Defeated as candidate 
for Congress, in 1843, he was returned in 1846. 
About this time he patented a novel steamboat. 
In 1854, he sought without success to be appointed 
General Land Commissioner. Subsequently, he is 
seen engaged vigorously in State politics, opposing 
Judge Douglas in a debate that attracted national 
attention, and that gave him the nomination for the 
Presidency of the United States. 

The face of Lincoln told the story of his life — a 
life of sorrow and struggle, of deep-seated sadness, of 
ceaseless endeavor. It would have taken no Lavater 
to interpret the rugged energy stamped on that un- 
comely plebeian face, with its great crag-like brows 
and bones, or to read there the deep melancholy 
that overshadowed every feature of it. 

Even as President of the United States, at a period 
when the nation's peril invested the holder of the 
office with almost despotic power, there seems to 
have been in Lincoln's nature a modesty and lack 
of desire to rule which nothing could lessen or efface. 
Wielding the power of a king, he retained the mod- 
esty of a commoner. 

And, surely, it is not among the least remarkable 
of her achievements, that American Democracy 
should have produced great statesmen and great 
soldiers, when called for by great events, who, as a 
rule, have been free from that dangerous ambition 



6 INTRODUCTORY 

which has tainted the fairest names of European 
history. If we have not had our age of Pericles, 
of Augustus or of Leo, we can boast of a history 
that has given us, within the period of a century, 
the patriotism of a Washington, a Lincoln and a 
Grant. 

If we may believe tradition, Lincoln came from a 
stock which proves the hereditary source of his 
chief characteristics. His humor, his melancholy, his 
strange mingling of energy and indolence, his gen- 
erosity, his unconventional character, his frugality, 
his tenderness, his courage, all are traceable to 
his ancestry as well as to the strange society which 
molded the boy and nerved the man to face without 
fear every danger that beset his path. He revealed 
to the old world a new type of man, of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, it is true, but modified by circumstances 
so novel and potent, and even dominating in their 
influence, as to mark a new departure in human 
character. Lincoln was the type and representative 
of the " Western man " — an evolution of family isola- 
tion, of battles with primeval forces and the most 
savaofe races of men, of the loneliness of untrodden 
forests, of the absence of a potent public opinion, of 
a state of society in which only inherent greatness of 
human character was respected ; in which tradition 
and authority went for naught, and courage and will 
were alone recognized as having rightful domina- 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

tion. The peculiarities of this society were not 
less reflected in its character than in its tastes. 
Thus, in Lincoln, for example, Rabelais and Machia- 
velli, coarse wit and political cunning, were quite 
as conspicuous as that tenderness and self-abnega- 
tion which recall the early history of the Christian 
Church. The Western man, the American of the 
Western prairies and forests, could in no sense be 
termed a colonial Englishman, as a large class of 
cultivated Eastern Americans might not unjustly be 
described. England had no mortgage on the mind or 
character or manners of these children of the West. 
The Western settlers had no respect for English 
traditions or teachings, whether of Church or of 
State. Accustomed all their lives to grapple with 
nature face to face, they thought and they spoke, 
with all the boldness of unrestrained sincerity, on 
every topic of human interest or of sacred memory, 
without the slightest recognition of any right of 
external authority to impose restrictions, or even to 
be heard in protest against their intellectual inde- 
pendence. As their life developed the utmost in- 
dependence of creed and individuality, he whose 
originality was the most fearless and self-contained 
was chief among them. Among such a people, 
blood of their blood and bone of their bone, differ- 
ing from them only in stature, Abraham Lincoln 
arose to rule the American people with a more than 



8 INTRODUCTORY 

kingly power, and received from them a more than 
feudal loyalty. 

Those who follow his life must be impressed 
with the equal serenity of Lincoln's temper, in mo- 
ments of the darkest adversity as in the hours of 
his greatest triumphs. It has been said that it is 
easier to stand adversity than prosperity, but, how- 
ever true this may be of private life, it is hardly 
applicable to times of stress in public affairs. I was 
struck with the remark of a great captain, when, in 
returning some compliment about America, I re- 
ferred to the feats of the armies under his command. 
" I accept your praise of our victories," he rejoined, 
" but what our armies would have been in defeat I 
cannot say." 

Lincoln's character was weighed in both balances ; 
and it was not found wanting. No man could 
have borne more nobly than he the sternest test of 
defeat. At these moments of extreme tension, his 
character alone came to his rescue. 

He was melancholy without being morbid — a lead- 
ing characteristic of men of genuine humor ; and it 
was this sense of humor that often enabled him to 
endure the most cruel strokes, that called for his 
sense of pity and cast a gloom over his official life. 
On these occasions he would relieve himself by com- 
paring trifles with great things and great things with 
trifles. No story was too trivial or even too coarse 



INTRODUCTORY g 

for his purpose ; provided that it aptly illustrated his 
ideas or served his policy. To this peculiar tend- 
ency of mind we owe the many stories and quaint 
sayings which lend to every recollection of Lincoln 
a strange and uncommon interest. 

I know no better illustration of the peculiar 
rapidity with which he would pass from one side 
of his nature to the other than a reminiscence for 
which I am indebted to Governor Curtin of Penn- 
sylvania, who, at the time, was one of the leading 
" War Governors." He was summoned to see Lin- 
coln, at the White House, on arriving after mid- 
night from the battle-field of Fredericksburg, where 
he had been inspecting the wounded and survey- 
ing this field of national disaster. Lincoln showed 
much anxiety about the wounded, and asked many 
questions about the battle. 

Governor Curtin replied, " Mr. President, it was 
not a battle, it was a butchery," and proceeded to 
give a graphic description of the scenes he had wit- 
nessed. Lincoln was heart-broken at the recital, and 
soon reached a state of nervous excitement border- 
ing on insanity. 

Finally, as the Governor was leaving the room, he 
went forward, and, taking the President by the hand, 
tenderly expressed his sympathy for his sorrow. 
He said, " Mr. President, I am deeply touched by 
your sorrow, and at the distress I have caused you. 



lO INTRODUCTORY 

I have only answered your questions. No doubt 
my impressions have been colored by the sufferings 
I have seen. I trust matters will look brighter when 
the official reports come in. I would give all I 
possess to know how to rescue you from this ter- 
rible war." 

Lincoln's whole aspect suddenly changed, and he 
relieved his mind by telling a story. 

" This reminds me, Governor," he said, " of an 
old farmer out in Illinois that I used to know. He 
took it into his head to go into hog raising. He 
sent out to Europe and imported the finest breed 
of hogs he could buy. The prize hog was put in 
a pen, and the farmer's two mischievous boys — 
James and John — were told to be sure not to let 
him out. But James, the worst of the two, let 
the brute out next day. The hog went straight 
for the boys, and drove John up a tree. Then 
the hog went for the seat of James's trousers, and 
the only way the boy could save himself was by 
holding on to the hog's tail. The hog would not 
give up his hunt nor the boy his hold ! After 
they had made a good many circles around the 
tree, the boy's courage began to give out, and he 
shouted to his brother, * I say, John, come down, 
quick, and help me le^ this hog go ! ' Now, Gov- 
ernor, that is exactly my case. I wish some one 
would come and help me let this hog go ! " 



INTRODUCTORY II 

This was a striking illustration of the sudden tran- 
sitions to which Lincoln's nature was prone. It 
sought relief in the most trying situations by recall- 
ing some parallel incident of a humorous character. 
His sense of humor never flagged. Even in his 
telegraphic correspondence with his generals we 
have instances of it which reflect his peculiar 
vein. 

General Sherman, who, like Caesar in this as in 
ot'her respects, enjoys a joke even at his own ex- 
pense, relates a story that illustrates this peculiar- 
ity. Soon after the battle of Shiloh the President 
promoted two officers to Major-Generalships. A 
good deal of dissatisfaction was expressed at this 
act. Among other critics of the President was 
General Sherman himself, who telegraphed to 
Washington, that, if such ill-advised promotions 
continued, the best chance for officers would be to 
be transferred from the front to the rear. This 
telegram was shown to the President. He immedi- 
ately replied by telegraph to the General that, in the 
matter of appointments, he was necessarily guided 
by officers whose opinions and knowledge he valued 
and respected. 

"The two appointments," he added, "referred to 
by you in your dispatch to a gentleman in Wash- 
ington were made at the suggestion of two men 
whose advice and character I prize most highly : 



1 2 /A' TROD UC TOR Y 

I refer to Generals Grant and Sherman." General 
Sherman then recalled the fact that, in the flush of 
victory, General Grant and himself had both recom- 
mended these promotions, but that it had escaped 
his memory at the time of writing his telegraphic 
dispatch. 

The oddity of Lincoln's reply is characteristic. 
He subsequently sent to General Sherman the right 
to promote, at his own choice, eight colonels under 
his command. 

His feeling toward Sherman and Grant, at the 
close of the war, as well as his extreme sensitiveness 
to rebuke on the part of those he esteemed, is well 
illustrated by another incident, for which, also, I am 
indebted to General Sherman. In conversation with 
him — I think at Richmond — the President asked 
the General whether he could guess what had al- 
ways attracted him to Grant and Sherman and led 
to a friendlier feeling for them than he had for 
others. " It was because," he said, " you never 
found fault with me, from the days of Vicksburg 
down." 

There is a sermon in these words which sug- 
gests many reflections. The responsibility of office 
weighed heavily upon the President, but never over- 
whelmed him; yet the rebuke of a friend caused him 
the keenest pangs. 

General Schenck once told me of being with 



INTRODUCTORY 1 3 

Lincoln on the occasion of his receiving bad news 
from the army. Placing his hands upon the 
General's knee and speaking with much emotion, he 
said, " You have little idea of the terrible weight of 
care and sense of responsibility of this office of mine. 
Schenck, if to be at the head of Hell is as hard as 
what I have to undergo here, I could find it in my 
heart to pity Satan himself." 

It will be seen from this remark that Lincoln was 
sometimes weary of the great burden that had 
fallen on him, and that he would gladly have re- 
signed it to others had this seemed possible without 
imperilling the national interests he had so close at 
heart. 

The following war episode, related to me by Mr. 
W. H. Croffut, who has given much attention to the 
subject, will help to illustrate the willingness of Lin- 
coln to put into other hands, and even to surrender 
to another political party, the administration of the 
Government, provided that the act could contribute 
toward the great end of peace and reunion. Mr. 
Croffut says : 

I have forgotten the exact month to which the 
beginning of this narrative refers ; indeed, I am not 
quite certain about the year, but it was winter time 
— probably the dawn of 1880. I had called at 
Thurlow Weed's, to inquire after the health of that 
aged man, then fourscore, and to enjoy hearing him 



14 INTRODUCTORY 

talk about the by-gone times In which he bore a dis- 
tinguished part. His tall form reclined upon a 
lounge wheeled in front of a hearth blazing with 
cannel coal. As I casually mentioned General Mc- 
Clellan in the conversation, he raised himself on his 
elbow and said, "He might have been President as 
well as not." Responding to my expression of 
surprise and interest, he went on : 

" I'll tell you what led up to it. About the 
middle of December, 1862, Seward telegraphed me 
to come to Washington. It had happened before 
that I had been summoned in the same way. I 
took it as a matter of course and caught the first 
train South. I got to Washington, and, after break- 
fast, went straight to the State Department. Mr. 
Seward was waiting for me. He took me right over 
to the White House, saying, * The President wants 
to see you.' 

" We found the President deeply depressed and 
distressed. I had never seen him in such a mood. 
* Everything goes wrong,' he broke out. ' The rebel 
armies hold their own ; Grant is wandering around 
in Mississippi ; Burnside manages to keep ahead of 
Lee ; Seymour has carried New York, and, if his 
party carries and holds many of the Northern States, 
we shall have to give up the fight, for we can never 
conquer three-quarters of our countrymen, scattered 
in front, flank, and rear. What shall we do ? ' 



INTRODUCTORY 1 5 

" I suggested that we could continue to wait, and 
that the man capable of leading our splendid armies 
would come in time. 

"'That's what I've been saying,' said Seward, 
who didn't believe, even thc:n, that the war was go- 
ing to be a long one. 

" Mr. Lincoln did not seem to heed the remark, 
but he said : 

** ' Governor Seymour could do more for our cause 
than any other man living. He has been elected 
Governor of our largest State. If he would come 
to the front he could control his partisans, and give 
a new impetus to the war. I have sent for you, Mr. 
Weed, to ask you to go to Governor Seymour and 
tell him what I say. Tell him, now is his time. 
Tell him, I do not wish to be President again, and 
that the leader of the other party, provided it is in 
favor of a vigorous war against the rebellion, should 
have my place. Entreat him to give the true ring 
to his annual message ; and if he will, as he easily 
can, place himself at the head of a great Union 
party, I will gladly stand aside and help to put him 
in the Executive Chair. All we want is to have the 
rebellion put down.' 

" I was not greatly surprised, for I knew before 
that such was the President's view. I had before 
heard him say, ' If there is a man who can push our 
armies forward one mile further or one hour faster 



1 6 INTRODUCTORY 

than I can, he is the man that ought to be in my 
place.' 

" I visited Governor Seymour at Albany, and 
delivered my commission from Lincoln. It was 
received most favorably. Seymour's feeling was 
always right, but his head was generally wrong. 
When I left him it was understood that his message 
to the Legislature would breathe an earnest Union 
spirit, praising the soldiers and calling for more, 
and omitting the usual criticisms of the President. 
I forwarded this expectation to Lincoln. 

'•Judge of my disappointment and chagrin when 
Seymour's message came out — a document calcu- 
lated to aid the enemy. It demanded that the war 
should be prosecuted ' on constitutional grounds ' 
— as if any war ever was or ever could be — and 
denounced the administration for the arbitrary arrest 
of Vallandigham and the enforcement of the draft. 

"This attempt to enlist the leader of the Demo- 
cratic party having failed, Lincoln authorized me 
to make the same overture to McClellan. 

" * Tell the General,' he said, * that we have no 
wish to injure or humiliate him ; that we wish only 
for the success of our armies ; that if he will come 
forward and put himself at the head of a Union- 
Democratic party, and, through that means, push 
forward the Union cause, I will gladly step aside 
and do all I can to secure his election in 1864.' 



INTRODUCTORY ly 

" I opened negotiations through S. L. M. Barlow, 
McClellan's next friend. Mr. Barlow called. I told 
him the scheme to bring McClellan forward. He 
approved of it, and agreed to see the General. He 
shortly afterward told me he had seen him and 
secured his acquiescence ; ' for,' he added, ' Mac is 
eager to do all he can do to put down the rebellion.' 
I suggested a great Union-Democratic meeting in 
Union Square, at which McClellan should preside 
and set forth his policy, and this was agreed to by 
both Mr. Barlow and McClellan. At the sugges- 
tion of Mr. Barlow, I drew up some memoranda of 
principles which it seemed to me desirable to set 
forth on that occasion, and these Mr. Barlow agreed 
to deliver to McClellan. The time set for the mass 
meeting was Monday, June i6th. Once more there 
seemed a promise of breaking the Northern hostil- 
ity and ending the war, by organizing a great inde- 
pendent Union party under McClellan. But this 
hope failed us, too. For, on the very eve of the 
meeting, I received a formal letter from McClellan 
declining to preside, without giving reasons. If he 
had presided at that war-meeting, and had persist- 
ently followed it up, nothing but death could have 
kept him from being elected President of the United 
States in 1864." 

This narrative, continues Mr. Croffut, seemed to 
me so extraordinary that I called on General McClel- 



l8 INTRODUCTORY 

Ian, who resided on Gramercy Park, and told him the 
story, with the purpose of ascertaining why he did 
not preside at the meeting after agreeing to do so. 

"You amaze me!" he said. "No such events 
ever occurred. Mr. Weed is a good old man, and 
he has forgotten. Mr. Lincoln never offered me 
the Presidency in any contingency. I never de- 
clined to preside at a war-meeting. How could I, 
when I was a Union soldier, and the only criticism 
I ever made on the Administration was that it did 
not push the armies fast enough ? There never was 
a time when I would have refused to preside at any 
meeting that could help the Union cause. I re- 
member nothing about any such memoranda, and 
am sure I never wrote to Thurlow Weed in my 
life." 

I asked the General if no such overture was ever 
made by Mr. Weed. 

" Not as I remember," he said. " I recollect his 
once speaking to me about the desirableness of 
taking the leadership of a War-Democratic party, 
but I do not remember the purport of this proposi- 
tion." 

At General McClellan's suggestion I called on 
Mr. Barlow, who also had forgotten all about it. 

Returning to Mr. Weed's, I asked if he could 
find the letter received from General McClellan. in 
which he declined to preside at a war-meeting. He 



INTRODUCTORY 



i0 



doubted if he had kept it, but Miss Harriet Weed. 
his faithful daughter and invaluable secretary, going 
in search of it, returned in an hour, bringing it from 
an upper room. It ran as follows : 

(Private) 

Oaklands, N. J., /une 13, 1863. 

My Dear Sir: 

Your kind note is received. 

For what I cannot doubt that you would consider 
good reasons, I have determined to decline the com- 
pliment of presiding over the proposed meeting of 
Monday next. 

I fully concur with you in the conviction that an 
honorable peace is not now possible, and that the 
war must be prosecuted to save the Union and the 
Government, at whatever cost of time and treasure 
and blood. 

I am clear, also, in the conclusion that the policy 
governing the conduct of the war should be one 
looking not only to military success, but also to 
ultimate re-union, and that it should consequently 
be such as to preserve the rights of all Union-loving 
citizens, wherever they may be, as far as compatible 
with military security. My views as to the prosecu- 
tion of the war remain, substantially, as they have 
been from the beginning of the contest ; these views 
I have made known officially. 



20 INTRODUCTORY 

I will endeavor to write you more fully before 

Monday. 

In the meantime believe me to be, in great haste, 

truly your friend, 

GEORGE B. McCLELLAN. 

Hon. Thurlow Weed, New York. 

" The General has forgotten that formal letter, 
has he ? " said Mr. Weed, smiling. " If he had pre- 
sided at that meeting, and rallied his party to the 
support of the war, he would have been President. 
I never heard what his reasons were, either ' before 
Monday' or any other day. Just see what an em- 
barrassing time it was to refuse to preside at a war- 
meeting. Grant seemed to be stalled in front of 
Vicksburg, and that very morning came a report 
that he was going to raise the siege. Banks was 
defeated, the day before, at Port Hudson, and, two 
days earlier, a rebel privateer had captured six of 
our vessels off the Chesapeake. The very day that 
McClellan wrote the letter, Lee was rapidly march- 
ing through Maryland into Pennsylvania, and the 
North was in a panic. There couldn't have been a 
worse time to decline to preside at a Union meet- 
ing, and I am sorry that the General has forgotten 
what prevented his doing so." 

I took the letter and returned to General Mc- 
Clellan with it. 

•' Well ! " he exclaimed, as he took it and in- 



INTRODUCTORY 21 

spected it, " that is my writing. I wrote that, and 
had forgotten about it. I don't know why I de- 
dined to preside ; but it was probably because I 
am shy in the presence of multitudes, am not in 
the habit of speech-making, and should be certain to 
preside awkwardly. But why should anybody sup- 
pose me indifferent to the prosecution of the war ? " 

" Because," I said, " a year later they found you 
standing as a candidate for President on a platform 
which declared the war up to that time a failure, 
and seemed to disparage the services of our soldiers 
in the field." 

" I never stood on that platform a day ! " he ex- 
claimed. " Everybody knows I did not. I repudi- 
ated it in my letter, and made my repudiation of it 
the only condition of accepting the nomination. I 
told all my friends so ! " 

"Mr. Weed thinks," I added, "that if you had 
presided instead of refusing to preside, and had fol- 
lowed it up with corresponding action, it would have 
united the North, finished the war a year sooner, 
saved thousands of lives, and made you President." 

" Oh, well," he said, laughing, " that's an Interest- 
ing speculation. Nobody can tell. At any rate I 
didn't, and it's all over now." 

Shortly afterward, I mentioned these facts to 
Frederick W. Seward. 

"Yes," he said, "I have often heard Mr. Weed 



2 2 INTROD UCTOR Y 

tell the story. The fact is that neither Lincoln 
nor my father expected that the Administration 
would be re-elected. Their only hope was to have 
the war carried on vigorously. The President used 
to say, ' I am sure there are men who could do more 
for the success of our armies in my place than I am 
doing ; I would gladly stand aside and let such a 
one take my place, any day.' Looking back at the 
Mexican and other wars, we thought some general 
would succeed Lincoln in 1864, and McClellan evi- 
dently thought so too. We did not foresee the 
tremendous victories and the splendid wave of pa- 
triotic feeling that carried Lincoln in again." 

Colonel John Hay tells me that he is acquainted 
with Lincoln's effort to stir up McClellan and Sey- 
mour, heard, I suppose, when he was in the White 
House. And Roscoe Conkling- tells me that it is 
not news to him. 

One morning, a year before he died, Mr. Weed 
said to me : 

" Governor Seymour was here yesterday. He 
stayed to dinner, and we had a good talk about old 
times. I spoke of the scheme to make him Presi- 
dent, and he remembered the details as I did. But 
he said that his reason for his action was that he 
* wanted to carry on the war legally.* He said he 
couldn't have carried his party with him to approve 
of the arbitrary arrest by Stanton of the Northern 



INTRODUCTORY 23 

Opponents of the war. When Seymour was sitting 
here I told him that he would have been President, 
certain, if he had come out heartily and unreserv- 
edly for the war in 1863; and he said, 'Well, it 
isn't much matter. I was not in good health at the 
time, and it might have killed me. It is a hard, 
laborious, thankless ofifice — it is just as well as 
it is." 



No act or utterance of General McClellan should 
be interpreted to convey any feeling of resentment 
toward Lincoln. In a conversation, not over two 
months before his death. General McClellan affirmed 
to me his belief that Lincoln intended to give him 
all the time for preparation that he required and 
demanded. The conversation turned upon the 
battle of Antietam, when some reference to the 
President's visit to the field occasioned the remark. 

General McClellan had fought the battle without 
a commission. The victory proclaimed, the Presi- 
dent at once visited the scene of conflict. 

"I remember well," said General McClellan, "our 
sitting on the hillside together, Lincoln, in his own 
ungainly way, propped up by his long legs, with his 
knees almost under his chin. 

"'General,' said he to me, 'you have saved the 
country. You must remain in command and carry 
us through to the end.* 



24 INTRODUCTORY 

'* ' That will be impossible/ replied McClellan. 
' We need time. The influences at Washington will 
be too strong for you, Mr. President. I will not be 
allowed the required time for preparation. * " 

General McClellan then recalled the exact words 
of Lincoln in reply : 

" General, I pledge myself to stand between you 
and harm." 

" And I honestly believe," said General McClellan, 
" that the President meant every word he said, but 
that the influences at Washington were, as I pre- 
dicted, too strong for him or for any living man." 

In a conversation with General Sherman, I once 
asked him if he had ever heard the story that 
General Grant, at one important crisis, cut the tele- 
graph wires between Washington and his headquar- 
ters in order to get rid of civil interference with his 
military operations. 

" Did he ? " said the General, laughing, *' why, I 
did that ! I never heard before that Grant did 
it!" 

He spoke for some time of the serious obstacles 
to the prosecution of the war caused by political 
interferences, and added, " I could do more with 
one hundred thousand men free from political con- 
trol, than with three hundred thousand near Wash- 
ington." 

In the better sense, Lincoln was, perhaps, some- 



INTRODUCTORY 2$ 

what of a casuist in believing that the end some- 
times sanctifies the means ; but his masterly com- 
mon sense was the guiding beacon in every stress 
and storm of events. He was so great in all the 
larger attributes of statesmanship that few, aside 
from those intimately associated with him, recog- 
nized his genius as a practical politician. He was 
ambitious, not merely because he knew his own 
great resources and aptitudes, but because he pro- 
foundly believed himself to be necessary to the 
country in the dire exigencies of the period. He 
alone had complete grasp of a situation unparalleled 
in our history ; and this was the general conviction 
of the large majority of the loyal men of the North. 
There is no cause, then, to marvel that he should 
have greatly desired a re-election in 1864, because 
his second term would not only cover the close of 
the war drama which, for four years, had absorbed 
the attention of a watchful world, but also the still 
greater responsibilities of reconstructing the shat- 
tered Union. 

Recognizing the fact that the anxiety of Lin- 
coln for a second term was a far nobler passion than 
anything rooted in mere personal pride or ambition, 
and remembering his offer to Governor Seymour, 
we can easily understand how he could justify him- 
self in bringing all his skill in practical politics to 
bear on the problem of re-election. 



26 INTRODUCTORY 

An incident, hitherto unpubHshed, will illustrate 
this trait. 

During the fall of 1864 it became evident that 
Pennsylvania was a " doubtful State." General Mc- 
Clellan, the candidate of the Democratic party, was 
not only popular there as a native Pennsylvanian, 
but, even among those loyal to the administration, 
he had a strong following and great sympathy, from 
the belief that he had been a much abused man. 
Lincoln was advised by the Republican State Com- 
mittee of Pennsylvania that the prospect was very 
uncertain. It was felt that, on the result in the 
Keystone State, hinged the fate of the national 
election. A gentleman belonging to the Republican 
Committee, then, as now, one of the leading poli- 
ticians of the State, had a consultation with the 
President on the situation. He thus relates the 
interview : 

" Mr. President," I said, " the only sure way to 
organize victory in this contest, is to have some 
fifteen thousand, or more, Pennsylvania soldiers fur- 
loughed and sent home to vote. While their votes 
in the field would count man for man, their pres- 
ence at the polls at home would exert an influence 
not easily to be estimated, by exciting enthusiasm 
and building up party morale. I would advise you 
to send a private message to General Grant, to be 
given in an unofficial way, asking for such an issu- 



IN TROD UCTOR Y 2"] 

ance of furloughs to Pennsylvania soldiers in the 
field." 

Lincoln was silent for some moments and seemed 
to be pondering. Then he answered : 

" I have never had any intimation from General 
Grant as to his feeling for me. I don't know how 
far he would be disposed to be my friend in the 
matter, nor do I think it would be safe to trust 
him." 

The President's interlocutor responded with some 
heat, " And do you mean to say that the man 
at whose back you stood, in defiance of the clamor 
of the country, for whom you fought through thick 
and thin, would not stand by you now?" 

" I don't know that General Grant would be my 
friend in this matter," reiterated the President. 

" Then, let it be done through General Meade, 
the direct commander of the Army of the Potomac — 
and General Sheridan, how about him ? " 

At this question, Lincoln's face grew sunny and 
bright. "I can trust Phil," he said; "he's all 
right ! " 

As a result of this conference, one of the assist- 
ant secretaries of war was sent to Petersburg with a 
strictly unofficial message to General Meade, and 
another agent was deputed to visit General Sher- 
idan. Some 10,000 or more Pennsylvania soldiers 
went home to vote when the time came, and Penn- 



28 INTRODUCTORY 

sylvania was carried by a handsome majority for the 
administration. 

If statesmanship is a practical science, to be tested 
by the touch-stone of enduring success, then is Lin- 
coln entitled to a place among the world's great 
statesmen. He was not of the rulers who seek only 
to impress their own will on the nation. He was 
not of the rulers who play for mere place in the 
great game of politics. 

As, in the first instance, tyrants are the selfish 
masters, so, in the other, demagogues are the selfish 
servants. But, above them, stand the men who have 
sought power to hold it as a sacred trust, and whose 
ambition and conduct are regulated by an ardent 
purpose to serve great national interests. It seems 
not too much to say that among these was Lincoln. 

He was pre-eminently a democratic ruler. Pro- 
foundly believing in a government of the people, 
by the people and for the people, however earnest 
his wish, as a man, to promote and enact justice 
between classes and races, he never went faster nor 
further than to enforce the will of the people that 
elected him. His strength as a President lay in his 
deep sympathy with the people, " the plain folks," 
as he loved to call them, and his intuitive knowl- 
edge of all their thoughts and aims, their prejudices 
and preferences, equally and alike. He was elected 
to save the Union, not to destroy slavery ; and 



INTRODUCTORY 29 

he did not aid, directly or indirectly, the movement 
to abolish slavery, until the voice of the people 
was heard demanding it in order that the Union 
might be saved. He did not free the negro for 
the sake of the slave, but for the sake of the 
Union. It is an error to class him with the noble 
band of abolitionists to whom neither Church 
nor State was sacred when it sheltered slavery. He 
signed the proclamation of emancipation solely be- 
cause it had become impossible to restore the Union 
with slavery. 

Like the nation itself, Lincoln, although personally 
opposed to slavery, was but slowly educated into the 
belief that no republican civilization could endure 
with slavery as a corner-stone, or even as one of the 
pillars, of the Temple of Democracy. He believed 
that the spread of slavery should be resisted ; for 
the Constitution did not contemplate its extension. 
He believed at one time that slavery should not be 
interfered with in the States that sustained it ; for 
the Constitution, in fact, although not in words, had 
recognized its legality. It was not until slavery or 
the Union must be sacrificed that he became the 
emancipator of the negro race in America. 

The Constitution, indeed, was the fetich of the 
pre-rebellion period of our history, and it com- 
manded the loyal worship of nearly all the earlier 
statesmen of the republic. 



oQ INTRODUCTORY 

It was not until the Southern poHticians, growing 
more and more arrogant, passed, with the aid of 
their Northern aUies, the Fugitive Slave Law, that 
the conscience of the North made itself felt as a 
political force ; for, hitherto, it had been satisfied 
with moral and religious protests, or with silent 
lamentations over the impossibility of abolishing 
slavery under the Federal Constitution. 

That act gave the death-blow to the Whig party. 
Out of its ashes arose the Republican party, which 
was organized solely to prevent the extension of 
slavery into virgin territory, but which was destined 
to destroy it and subsequently to enfranchise the 
slaves whom it had emancipated. 

Yet the Fugitive Slave Law did not arouse in 
Abraham Lincoln the profound indignation that he 
was afterward to transmute into emancipation. 

The Fugitive Slave Law, by some oversight, had 
omitted the District of Columbia from its opera- 
tions. On the loth of January, 1849, in the 30th 
Congress, Abraham Lincoln offered a resolution to 
extend the Fugitive Slave Law over the District of 
Columbia ! 

It was for this act, when the news of his nomina- 
tion for the presidency reached Massachusetts, that 
he was denounced by the greatest of American anti- 
slavery orators, Wendell Phillips, as " the Slave 
Hound of Illinois." 



INTRODUCTORY 



31 



This proposition, however, was not presented in 
what might otherwise have well been regarded as its 
naked deformity. It was part of a bill, offered by 
the obscure congressman from Illinois, to provide for 
the gradual extinction of slavery in the District. 

As this incident in the public life of Lincoln has 
been but slightly noticed, it may be well to put the 
entire record before the reader : 

" yanuary 8, 1849. At Second Session, 30th Con- 
gress, Mr. Lincoln voted against a motion to suspend 
the rules and take up the following : 

** Resolved : That the Committee on the Judiciary 
is hereby Instructed to report a bill to the House, 
providing effectually for the apprehension and de- 
livery of fugitives from Iowa who have escaped, or 
who may escape, from one State into another." 

*' yanuary 13, 1849. Mr. Lincoln gave notice of 
a motion for leave to introduce a bill abolishing 
slavery in the District of Columbia by consent of 
the free white people of the District of Columbia, 
with compensation to owners. 

"At Second Session, 30th Congress, January loth, 
1849, John Wentworth, of Illinois, introduced the 
following : 

'■' Whereas, The traffic now prosecuted in this 
metropolis of the Republic in human beings as 



32 INTRODUCTORY 

chattels is contrary to natural justice and the fun- 
damental principles of our political system, and is 
notoriously a reproach to our country throughout 
Christendom, and a serious hinderance to the prog- 
ress of republican liberty among the nations of the 
earth ; therefore, 

"Resolved, That the Committee for the District 
of Columbia be instructed to report a bill, as soon 
as practicable, prohibiting the slave trade in said 
District." 

" Mr. Lincoln thereupon read an amendment which 
he intended to offer, if he could obtain the oppor- 
tunity, as follows : 

" That the Committee on the District of Colum- 
bia be instructed to report a bill in substance as 
follows : 

"Sec. I. Be it enacted, etc., That no person not 
now within the District of Columbia, nor now owned 
by any person or persons now resident within it, nor 
hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery 
within said District. 

" Sec. 2. That no person now within said District, 
or now owned by any person or persons now resi- 
dent within the same, or hereafter born within it, 
shall ever be held in slavery within the limits of 
said District. 

"Provided, That officers of the Government of 



INTRODUCTORY 2>Z 

the United States, being citizens of the slave-hold- 
ing States, coming into said District on public busi- 
ness, and remaining only so long as may be reason- 
ably necessary for that object, may be attended into 
and out of said District, and while there, by the 
necessary servants of themselves and their families, 
without their rights to hold such servants in service 
being thereby impaired. 

"Sec. 3. That all children born of slave mothers 
within said District on or after the first day of Janu- 
ary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty, shall be free ; but shall be rea- 
sonably supported and educated by the respective 
owners of their mothers, or by their heirs or repre- 
sentatives, and shall serve reasonable service as ap- 
prentices to such owners, heirs and representatives, 
until they respectively arrive at the age of — years, 
when they shall be entirely free ; but the municipal 
authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within 
their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby em- 
powered and required to make all suitable and nec- 
essary provisions for enforcing obedience to this 
section, on the part of both masters and apprentices. 

" Sec. 4. That all persons now within said District, 
lawfully held as slaves, or now owned by any person 
or persons now residents within said District, shall 
remain such at the will of their respective owners, 
their heirs and legal representatives ; 



34 



INTRODUCTORY 



^'■Provided^ That any such owner, or his legal repre- 
sentatives, may at any time receive from the Treas- 
ury of the United States the full value of his or her 
slave of the class in this section mentioned, upon 
which such slave shall be forthwith and forever free. 

''And provided further, That the President of the 
United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury shall be a board for determin- 
ing the value of such slaves as their owners may 
desire to emancipate under this section, and whose 
duty it shall be to hold a session for such purpose 
on the first Monday of each calendar month, to re- 
ceive all applications, and, on satisfactory evidence 
in each case that the person presented for valuation 
is a slave and of the class in this section mentioned, 
and is owned by the applicant, shall value such slave 
at his or her full cash value, and give to the appli- 
cant an order on the Treasury for the amount, and 
also to such slave a certificate of freedom. 

"Sec. 5. That the municipal authorities of Wash- 
ington and Georgetown, within their respective juris- 
dictional limits, are hereby empowered and required 
to provide active and efficient means to arrest and 
deliver up to their owners all fugitive slaves escap- 
ing into said districts. 

"Sec. 6. That the officers of elections within said 
District of Columbia are hereby empowered and re- 
quired to open polls at all the usual places of hold- 



INTRODUCTORY 



35 



ing elections on the first Monday of April next, 
and receive the vote of every free white male cit- 
izen above the age of twenty-one years, having re- 
sided within said District for the period of one year 
or more next preceding the time of such voting for 
or against this act, to proceed in taking such votes 
in all respects, not herein specified, as at elections 
under the municipal laws, and with as little delay 
as possible to transmit correct statements of the 
votes so cast to the President of the United States; 
and it shall be the duty of the President to canvass 
such votes immediately, and if a majority of them 
be found to be for this act, to forthwith issue his 
proclamation giving notice of the fact ; and this act 
shall only be in full force and effect on and after 
the day of such proclamation. 

" Sec. 7. That involuntary servitude for the pun- 
ishment of crime whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted shall in nowise be prohibited by this 
act. 

" Sec. 8. That for all the purposes of this act, the 
jurisdictional limits of Washington are extended to 
all parts of the District of Columbia not now in- 
cluded within the present limits of Georgetown." 

It was the 5th section of this bill that aroused 
Wendell Phillips's indignation. Both of these emi- 
nent men lived long enough to honor each other's 



o6 INTRODUCTORY 

services and complement each other's career — for, 
without the agitator, the emancipator would have 
had no public opinion to support him, and, without 
Mr. Lincoln's act, Mr. Phillips's oratory would have 
remained brilliant rhetoric only. 

Growing, as the people grew, in moral conviction, 
sympathizing with them and aiming only to do their 
will, Abraham Lincoln may rightly be regarded as 
a model democratic statesman. Thus growing and 
thus acting, his official measures had all the force of a 
resistless fate. What he achieved endured, because 
it was founded on the rock of the people's will. It 
has been the destiny of many illustrious reformers 
to outlive the reforms for which they zealously strove, 
and history furnishes innumerable illustrations of the 
truth that reforms not based on public opinion rarely 
outlast the lifetime of their champions. What eager 
idealists, therefore, decried in Lincoln — his loyal 
deference to the will of the majority, his tardiness 
in adopting radical measures, and his reluctance to 
advance more rapidly than the " plain folks " — 
time has shown to be the highest wisdom in the 
ruler of a democracy. 

Lincoln's deep-rooted faith in representative de- 
mocracy was strikingly illustrated in his first public 
act — the appointment of his Cabinet. Believing in 
the rightfulness of party rule, that is to say, in the 
rule of the majority, instea4 of seeking to call as his 



INTRODUCTORY 37 

councillors men who might serve his personal ends, 
he selected them from the most popular of his rivals 
— men who had competed with him for the Presiden- 
tial nomination. His Cabinet thus represented not 
only every division of his party, but consisted of 
those whom these factions regarded as their ablest 
representatives. It was a Cabinet of " all the talents " 
and all the popularities ; and yet among these vet- 
eran statesmen, most of them long-trained and skill- 
ful in all the arts of statecraft, Lincoln was acknowl- 
edged the master spirit. This Cabinet numbered 
among its members men no less eminent than Sew- 
ard, Chase and Stanton. 

The question of ascendency in the Cabinet during 
the War of the Rebellion is still earnestly discussed 
by some. The names of Lincoln, Seward and Stan- 
ton have each advocates claiming unquestioned pre- 
eminence for one or the other of these great states- 
men. Some, with greater zeal and fidelity than 
knowledge or justice, have sought to exalt the 
great Secretary of State or the great Secretary of 
War at the expense of the great War President. 
Surely no labor of love could be more futile. For 
history will place all of these illustrious Americans 
on the most honored pedestals in the nation's pan- 
theon, and will add that each of them supplemented, 
not overshadowed, his associates. Yet no one who 
was familiar with the secrets of the administration 



i/ 



38 INTRODUCTORY 

could well doubt that in all critical issues the uncouth 
Western statesman, unused to power, asserted and 
maintained his inherent as well as his official suprem- 
acy. His common sense, his unselfish purpose, his 
keen perceptions, his unostentatious manners, his 
mental ubiquity, and his insight into men, soon made 
him as pre-eminent and as powerful with the leaders 
of the people as he had always been with the people 
themselves. 

Stanton's iron will was felt at every important 
epoch of the war, but when his idea of policy con- 
flicted with the purpose of his chief, the great War 
Minister was forced to yield. Seward, perhaps the 
ablest American diplomatist of the century, found 
also in the man of the people a master who knew 
when to exact implicit obedience. This fact is dem- 
onstrated by the State document herewith repro- 
duced m. facsimile "^ — the dispatch conveying to Mr. 
Adams, our Minister at the Court of St. James's, 
Mr. Seward's first full instructions after the outbreak 
of the Rebellion. It was corrected by the Presi- 
dent, as will now be seen, in words that testify to 
his statesmanship, as, without question, they saved 
the nation from a war with England, which, at that 
period, would probably have resulted in the estab- 
lishment of the Southern Confederacy. 

* This facsimile, originally designed by me for this volume, was, for urgent 
reasons, unnecessary here to state, first published in the issue of the North 
American Review for April, 1886. 



INTRODUCTORY ^g 

Lincoln, then, had been President for only three 
months. Certainly, when he came to the office, the 
farthest thing from the thought of the people was to 
credit him with diplomatic knowledge or skill. But 
this paper, by its erasures, its substitutions and its 
amendments, shows a nice sense of the shades of 
meaning in words, a comprehensive knowledge of 
the situation, and a thorough appreciation of the 
grave results which might follow the use of terms 
that he either modified or erased. These correc- 
tions of Mr. Seward's dispatch, by the "rail-splitter" 
of Illinois, form a most interesting addition to the 
history of Lincoln, and to that of our diplomacy. 

The paper is one that needs few comments to 
bring its remarkable character before the reader. 
The burdens of home affairs, which then lay heavily 
on the new President, will readily recur to every 
student of our history. The countless demands 
upon his time gave little opportunity for reflection. 
Prompt action was required in all directions and in 
everything, small and great. But, as his handiwork 
shows, he turned with perfect composure from the 
home to the equally threatening foreign field, and 
revised, with a master-hand, the most important dis- 
patch that had as yet been prepared by Mr. Seward. 
The work shows a freedom, an insight into foreign 
affairs, a skill in the use of language, a delicacy of 
criticism and a discrimination in methods of diplo- 



40 



INTRODUCTORY 



matic dealing which entitle the President to the 
honors of an astute statesman. 

The opening of the dispatch is Mr. Seward's first 
draft as corrected by himself. The President's re- 
vision begins with the direction to leave out the 
paragraph, "We intend to have a clear and simple 
record of whatever issue may arise between us and 
Great Britain." He seemed to see no reason for 
harshly reproving Mr. Dallas ; and so he modified 
the expression, " The President is surprised and 
grieved," to the President "regrets." With the mul- 
tiplicity of facts crowding his mind, he yet did not 
forget that no explanations had been demanded of 
Great Britain ; and so he wrote in the margin : 
" Leave out, because it does not appear that such 
explanations were demanded." He did not care to 
reflect upon the body of our representatives abroad, 
and therefore he struck out the sentence on that 
subject, which is marked. He crossed out "wrong- 
ful " and wrote " hurtful," showing a knowledge of 
the exact value of words worthy of a Trench. A 
wrongful act implies intention to harm, but in the 
word " hurtful " the charge of intent is not found. 
In the unsettled condition of the question of recog- 
nizing the Southern Confederacy, he did not deem 
it best to threaten ; and so, instead of " No one of 
these proceedings will be bor7te by the United 
States," he first substituted "will pass unnoticed," 



INTRODUCTORY 4 1 

for " borne," and then, strengthening his own ex- 
pression somewhat, he finally wrote "will pass un- 
questioned." 

In discussing the question of privateers, Lincoln 
wrote " Omit " opposite another threat in the ex- 
pression, " the laws of nations afford an adequate 
and proper remedy, and we shall avail ourselves of 
it." This last clause he struck out. An examination 
of the facsimile will at once disclose the nature of 
the more extensive changes that were made. The 
close of the letter exhibits further examples of minor 
corrections which are of exceeding interest. The 
changes in one sentence are especially noteworthy. 
" If that nation will now repeat the same great 
crime," wrote Mr. Seward. "If that nation shall 
now repeat the same great erroVy' amended Lincoln. 
"Social calamities'' he changed to "social convul- 
sio7ts,'* as if he had in mind that, in the end, the re- 
sults might not prove calamitous, however great 
the convulsions. The paper will bear long study, 
and no one can examine it without acquiring a new 
and more exalted estimate of Lincoln's many-sided 
powers. 

Frequent efforts have been made to obtain a copy 
of the draft here published, but, even when backed 
by the authority of Congress, they have failed in 
securing it. 

In the Forty-fourth Congress, first session, in the 



42 INTRODUCTORY 

Senate, on Tuesday, June 6, 1876, Senator Boutwell 
offered, for present consideration, this resolution, to 
which he said he supposed there would be no objec- 
tion : 

" Resolved, That the President be requested, if not 
in his opinion inconsistent with the public interests, 
to furnish the Senate with a fac-simile copy of the 
original draft of the letter of the Secretary of State 
to the Minister of the United States, at the Court 
of St. James's, in May, 1861, in relation to the proc- 
lamation of Her Majesty, the Queen of Great 
Britain, recognizing the belligerent character of the 
Confederate States." 

There being now no valid objection to its publicity, 
I have availed myself of an opportunity of giving 
to the public the draft of this famous diplomatic 
dispatch ; and, in order to make the comparison less 
difficult, the dispatch also is given in full, as printed 
in the official correspondence, page by page, with 
notes of the corrections made in the draft as ad- 
denda to each page. 

Of the value of this volume I may speak without 
vanity, as my function has been that of collector 
only. The contributors took an earnest and gener- 
ally a conspicuous part, each in his own field, in the 
great American struggle for nationality and free- 
dom. I have not sought to eliminate statements 
with which I disagree, nor to prevent the occasional 



INTRODUCTORY 



43 



conflict of testimony which results from that inhe- 
rent falh'biHty of human evidence that sometimes 
troubles, however slightly, even the highest sources 
of authority. Each writer reports what he himself 
believes, or saw, or heard, and stands sponsor for his 
own contribution to these interesting memoirs. 

It has been necessary to postpone the publication 
of many essays as interesting and as valuable as 
those embraced in this collection ; for, in my desire 
to secure the testimony of every eminent associate 
of Lincoln, I endeavored to leave no prominent 
American of the war period uninformed of the work 
in progress. These additional essays will appear at 
a later day. 

The public, I venture to believe, will look with 
sincere satisfaction upon the result obtained through 
the prompt and able co-operation of the distin- 
guished contributors to these reminiscences. For 
the time is fast coming when we shall seek in vain 
for survivors of the dark days that fashioned the ca- 
reer of Abraham Lincoln. Already, within the brief 
period of one year, death has stricken many names 
from the list — among them the historic ones of 
Grant, McClellan, Hancock, and McDowell. Yet 
a little while, and few witnesses will remain to tell 
the tale. And coming generations will remember 
with tenderness the recorded words of the great- 
hearted statesman to whom every sorrow of the 



44 INTRODUCTORY 

nation was more than sorrow of his own. They 
will dwell fondly upon his pathetic simplicity, and 
with pride upon his rare and splendid gifts. With 
peculiar affection they will recall his every utter- 
ance, grave or humorous. They will recollect with 
gratitude the devoted patriotism which guided him 
through all, and they will remember with keen sor- 
row the calamity of his tragic end. 

Allen Thorndike Rice. 



THE DISPATCH AS PRINTED. 

No. lo.] Department of State, 

Washington, May 21, 1861. 

Sir: This Government considers that our relations 
in Europe have reached a crisis in which it is neces- 
sary for it to take a decided stand, on which not 
only its immediate measures but its ultimate and 
permanent policy can be determined and defined. 
At the same time it neither means to menace Great 
Britain nor to wound the susceptibilities of that or 
any other European nation. That policy is devel- 
oped in this paper. 

The paper itself is not to be read or shown to the 
British Secretary of State, nor are any of its posi- 
tions to be prematurely, unnecessarily, or indiscreetly 
made known. But its spirit will be your guide. You 
will keep back nothing when the time arrives for its 
being said with dignity, propriety, and effect, and you 
will all the while be careful to say nothing that will 
be incongruous or inconsistent with the views which 
it contains. \See Page i of facsimile copy. 



INTRODUCTORY 



45 



Mr. Dallas In a brief dispatch of May 2 (No. 333), 
tells us that Lord John Russell recently requested 
an interview with him on account of the solicitude 
which his lordship felt concerning the effect of cer- 
tain measures represented as likely to be adopted by 
the President. In that conversation the British Sec- 
retary told Mr. Dallas that the three representatives 
of the Southern Confederacy were then in London, 
that Lord John Russell had not yet seen them, but 
that he was not unwilling to see them, unofficially. 
He farther informed Mr. Dallas that an understand- 
ing exists between the British and French Govern- 
ments which would lead both to take one and the 
same course as to recognition. His lordship then 
referred to [/^^£'^ 2. 

the rumor of a meditated blockade by us of Southern 
ports, and a discontinuance of them as ports of entry. 
Mr. Dallas answered that he knew nothing on those 
topics, and therefore could say nothing. He added 
that you were expected to arrive in two weeks. 
Upon this statement Lord John Russell acquiesced 
in the expediency of waiting for the full knowl- 
edge you were expected to bring. 

Mr. Dallas transmitted to us some newspaper 
reports of ministerial explanations made in Parlia- 
ment. 

You will base no proceedings on parliamentary 
debates farther than to seek explanations when 
necessary and communicate them to this department. 

The President regrets {^^^£'^ 3- 

On this page, after the word department, the Presi- 
dent drew a line around the sentence " We intend to 
have a clear and simple record of whatever issue may 
arise between us and Great Britain," and wrote the 



46 INTRODUCTORY 

words " Leave out." He also similarly encircled the 
words "is surprised and grieved," and rendered the 
phrase " The President regrets." 

that Mr. Dallas did not protest against the proposed 
unofficial intercourse between the British Govern- 
ment and the missionaries of the insurgents. 

It is due, however, to Mr. Dallas to say, that our 
instructions had been given only to you and not to 
him, and that his loyalty and fidelity, too rare in these 
times, are appreciated. 

Intercourse of any kind with the so-called commis- 
sioners is liable to be construed as a recognition of 
the authority which appointed them. Such inter- 
course would be none the less hurtful to us for being 
called unofficial, and it might be even more injurious, 
because we should have no means of knowing what 
points might be resolved by it. Moreover, 

[Page 4. 

After the phrase " missionaries of the insurgents " 
the Secretary had added, "as well as against the 
demand for explanations made by the British Govern- 
ment ; " but the President wrote " Leave out, because 
it does not appear that explanations were demanded." 

As the Secretary wrote the second sentence, it 
read : " It is due, however, to Mr. Dallas to say 
that our instructions had been given only to you, 
not to him, and that his loyalty and fidelity, too rare 
in these times among our representatives abroad, are 
confessed and appreciated." The President wrote 
" Leave out " against the words italicized. 



INTRODUCTORY 



47 



In the last complete sentence on this page, also, 
the President substituted the word " hurtful '" for 



" wrongful." 



unofficial intercourse is useless and meaningless if 
it is not expected to ripen into official intercourse 
and direct recognition. It is left doubtful, here, 
whether the proposed unofficial intercourse has yet 
actually begun. Your own antecedent instructions 
are deemed explicit enough and it is hoped that you 
have not misunderstood them. You will, in any 
event, desist from all intercourse whatever, unofficial 
as well as official, with the British Government, so 
long as it shall continue intercourse of either kind 
with the domestic enemies of this country. 

When intercourse shall have been arrested for this 
cause, you will communicate with this department 
and receive further directions. [.^^£'^ 5- 

After the words "domestic enemies of this coun- 
try" the Secretary had added " confining yourself 
simply to a delivery of a copy of this paper to the 
Secretary of State." "Leave out," wrote the Presi- 
dent. 

"After doing this, you will communicate with 
this department," was the language of Mr. Seward. 
" When communication shall have been arrested for 
this cause, you will communicate with this depart- 
ment," was the President's emendation. 

Lord John Russell has informed us of an under- 
standing between the British and French Govern- 



48 INTRODUCTORY 

ments that they will act together In regard to our 
affairs. This communication, however, loses some- 
thing of its value from the circumstance that the 
communication was withheld until after knowledge 
of the fact had been acquired by us from other 
sources. We know, also, another fact that has not 
yet been officially communicated to us, namely, that 
other European States are apprised by France and 
England of their agreement, and are expected to con- 
cur with or follow them in whatever measures they 
adopt on the subject of recognition. The United 
States have been impartial and just in all their con- 
duct towards the several nations of Europe. They 
will not complain, however, of the combination now 
announced by the two leading powers, although they 
think they had a right to expect a more independent 
if not a more \jP^g^ 6« 

friendly course from each of them. You will take 
no notice of that or any other alliance. Whenever 
the European governments shall see fit to commu- 
nicate directly with us, we shall be, as heretofore, 
frank and explicit in our reply. 

As to the blockade, you will say that, by our own 
laws, and the laws of nations, this Government has a 
clear right to suppress insurrection. An exclusion 
of commerce from national ports, which have been 
seized by the insurgents, in the equitable form of 
blockade, is a proper means to that end. You will 
not insist that our blockade is to be respected if it 
be not maintained by a competent force, but passing 
by that question as not now a practical, or at least 
an urgent one, you will add that the blockade is now 
and it will continue to be so maintained, and there- 
fore we expect it to be respected by Great Britain. 
You will add that we have. 

\^Pa£^e 7. 



INTRODUCTORY ^q 

"As to the blockade, " wrote the Secretary, "you 
will say that, by the laws of nature and the laws of 
nations, this Government has a clear right to sup- 
press insurrections." For the phrase "the laws of 
nature," the President wrote " our own laws." 



already revoked the exequatur of a Russian consul 
who had enlisted in the military service of the insur- 
gents, and we shall dismiss or demand the recall of 
every foreign agent, consular or diplomatic, who 
shall either disobey the Federal laws or disown the 
Federal authority. 

As to the recognition of the so-called Southern 
Confederacy it is not to be made a subject of tech- 
nical definition. It is, of course, direct recognition 
to publish an acknowledgment of the sovereignty 
and independence of a new power. It is direct 
recognition to receive its ambassadors, ministers, 
agents, or commissioners officially. A concession of 
belligerent rights is liable to be construed as a recog- 
nition of them. No one of these proceedings will 
pass unquestioned by the United States in this case. 

Hitherto recognition has been moved only on the 
assumption that the so-called Confederate States are 
de facto a self-sustaining power. Now, after long 
forbearance, designed to soothe discontent and avert 
the need of civil war, \P(^i^ 8. 

" No one of these proceedings," wrote the Secre- 
tary, "will be borne by the United States in this 
case." The President first substituted "unnoticed" 
for "borne," and then corrected his own word by 
writing "will pass unquestioned." 



so 



INTRODUCTORY 



the land and naval forces of the United States have 
been put in motion to repress the insurrection. The 
true character of the pretended new State is at once 
revealed. It is seen to be a power existing in pro- 
nunciamento only. It has never won a field. It 
has obtained no forts that were not virtually betrayed 
into its hands or seized in breach of trust. It com- 
mands not a single port on the coast nor any high- 
way out from its pretended Capital by land. Under 
these circumstances, Great Britain is called upon to 
intervene and give it body and independence by resist- 
ing our measures of suppression. British recogni- 
tion would be British inter- \jP^^^ 9- 

vention to create, within our territory, a hostile 
State by overthrowing this Republic itself. * * * 
As to the treatment of privateers in the insurgent 
service you will say that this is a question exclusively 
our own. We treat them as pirates. They are our 
own citizens, or persons employed by our citizens, 
preying on the commerce of our country. If Great 
Britain shall choose to recognize them as lawful bel- 
ligerents, and give them shelter from our pursuit and 
punishment, the laws of nations afford an adequate 
and proper remedy. [,^^£'^ lo* 

After the words " overthrowing this Republic 
itself," Mr. Seward added this sentence, which Lin- 
coln eliminated : " When this act of intervention 
is distinctly performed, we, from that hour, shall 
cease to be friends, and {become once more as we 
have twice before beeii), be forced to be enemies 
of Great Britain." Here the President seems at 
first to have decided to strike out only the words 



INTRODUCTORY 5 1 

that are italicized, but subsequently he erased the 
entire sentence. 

After the last sentence on the page, following the 
words "proper remedy," the Secretary had written 
*' and we shall avail ourselves of it. And while you 
need not say this in advance, be sure that you say 
nothing inconsistent with it." " Ozi^," wrote the 
President. 

Happily, however, her Britannic Majesty's Gov- 
ernment can avoid all these difificulties. It invited 
us, in 1856, to accede to the declaration of the Con- 
gress of Paris, of which body Great Britain was 
herself a member, abolishing privateering every- 
where, in all cases and forever. You already have 
our authority to propose to her our accession to 
that declaration. If she refuse to receive it, it can 
only be because she is willing to become the patron 
of privateering when aimed at our devastation. 

These positions are not elaborately defended now, 
because to vindicate them would imply a possibility 
of our waiving them. * * * 

We are not insensible of the grave importance of 
this occasion. We see how, upon the result of the 
debate in which we are engaged, a war may 

[^Pa£-e II. 

After the second paragraph on this page the Pres- 
ident wrote : " Drop all from this line to the end, 
and in lieu of it write ' This paper is for your own 
guidance only, and not to be read or shown to any 
one. 



52 INTRODUCTORY 

ensue between the United States and one, two, or 
even more, European nations. War in any case is as 
exceptionable from the habits, as it is revoking from 
the sentiments, of the American people. But if it 
come, it will be fully seen that it results from the 
action of Great Britain, not our own ; that Great 
Britain will have decided to fraternize with our 
domestic enemy either without waiting to hear, from 
you, our remonstrances and our warnings, or after 
having heard them. War in defence of national life 
is not immoral, and war in defence of independence 
is an inevitable part of the discipline of nations. 

The dispute will be between the European and 
the American branches of the British race. All 
who belong to that race will especially deprecate it, 
as they ought. It may well be believed that men 
of every race and kindred will deplore it. A war not 
unlike it, between the same parties, occurred at the 
close of the last century. Europe atoned by forty 
years of suffering for the error that Great Britain 
committed in provoking that contest. \jP^^^ 12. 

For our "remonstrances and wrongs," on this 
page, the President substituted "our remonstrances 
and our warnings." 

" Europe atoned by forty years of suffering for 
the crime," wrote Mr. Seward ; " forty years of suf- 
fering for the error," wrote Lincoln. 

If that nation shall now repeat the same great error, 
the social convulsions which will follow may not be 
so long, but they will be more general. When they 
shall have ceased it will, we think, be seen, what- 
ever may have been the fortunes of other nations, 
that it is not the United States that will have come 



INTRODUCTORY 



53 



out of them with its precious constitution altered, 
or its honestly obtained dominion in any way 
abridged. Great Britain has but to wait a few 
months and all her present inconveniences will cease 
with all our own troubles. If she take a different 
course, she will calculate for herself the ultimate as 
well as the immediate consequences, and will con- 
sider what position she will hold when she shall have 
forever lost the sympathies and the affections of the 
only nation on whose sympathies and affections she 
has a natural claim. In making that calculation, 
she will do well to remember that, in the contro- 
versy she proposes to open, we shall be actuated by 
neither pride, nor passion, nor cupidity, nor am- 
bition, but we shall stand simply on the principle 
of self-preservation, and that our cause will involve 
the independence of nations, and the rights of human 
nature. 

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

William H. Seward. 

Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c. 

lPa£-e 13. 

The subtile corrections on this page have already 
been noted. 




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II 

LINCOLN'S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE 

IN the autumn of 1849, ^ ^^^ sitting with Judge 
David Davis in a small country hotel in Mt. 
Pulaski, Illinois, when a tall man, with a circular 
blue cloak thrown over his shoulders, entered one 
door of the room, and passing through without 
speaking, went out another. I was struck by his 
appearance. It was the first time I had ever seen 
him, and I said to Judge Davis, when he had gone, 
"Who is that?" "Why, don't you know him? 
That is Lincoln." In a few moments he returned, 
and, for the first time, I shook the hand and made 
the acquaintance of that man who since then has 
so wonderfully impressed himself upon the hearts 
and affections of mankind. 

The State of Illinois contained at that time in 
round numbers about 500,000 souls, and Chicago 
about 28,000 instead of 700,000 as now. The county 
seats of the State, now containing 5,000 and 20,000 
as a general rule, then contained 500 to 1,000, with 
a log court house and a log jail. The settlements in 



68 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the country skirted along the timber, the streams 
were without bridges, and the prairies were wholly 
unsettled. Dim roads or trails extended from one 
county seat to another, and the ordinary mode of 
travel was on horseback or, occasionally, in a buggy. 

We were then attending the circuit court, which 
circuit embraced fourteen counties. These courts 
commenced about the first of September and closed 
about Christmas, and commenced again about Feb- 
ruary and closed about June. The time allotted for 
holding court was from two to three days to a week 
at a place.* Mr. Lincoln had, just before that time, 
closed his only term in Congress, and had, when I 
met him, returned to his former life as a lawyer 
upon this, the Eighth Judicial Circuit. For eleven 
years thereafter we traversed this circuit together, 
the size of the circuit being diminished by the Leg- 
islature as the country increased in settlement ; 
staying at the same little country hotel, riding and 
driving together over the country, and trying suits 
together, or, more frequently, opposed to each other. 

In the fall of 1853, as I was riding with him in a 
buggy from De Witt County to Champaign, a dis- 
tance of about fifty miles, upon the business of at- 
tending this court, and as we were traversing a 
prairie some twelve or fifteen miles in width, and 
nearing Champaign, I said to Mr. Lincoln, " I have 
heard a great many curious incidents of your early 

* See Note, p. 80. 



LINCOLN'S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE 69 

life, and I would be obliged if you would begin at 
your earliest recollection and tell me the story of it 
continuously." The season and the surroundings 
seemed adapted to lazy story telling. The weather 
was the perfection of Indian summer time, and 
the tall grasses covered the prairie everywhere like 
ripened grain. Occasionally, a distant prairie fire 
filled the air with hazy smoke, the quail whistled to 
his mate, and, at times, the red deer started from the 
tall grasses of the dell as we passed along. I give 
this story as nearly as I can in the substance of his 
own language : 

" I can remember," he said, "our life in Kentucky; 
the cabin, the stinted living, the sale of our posses- 
sions, and the journey with my father and mother 
to Southern Indiana." 

I think he said he was then about six years old. 
Shortly after his arrival in Indiana his mother died. 

** It was pretty pinching times," he said, " at first 
in Indiana, getting the cabin built, and the clearing 
for the crops ; but presently we got reasonably com- 
fortable, and my father married again." 

He had very faint recollections of his own mother, 
he was so young when she died, but he spoke most 
kindly of her and of his step-mother, and of her care 
for him in providing for his wants. 

He told me of earning his first half dollar. Stand- 
ing upon the shore of a river a steamboat was passing 



70 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

along in the middle of the stream. Some one on 
board the boat called to him to come with a small 
boat. He went, took off a passenger, and was paid 
the half dollar. Afterwards, playing upon a flat- 
boat which was fastened so as to reach out into the 
stream, he dropped his half dollar from the farthest 
end of the boat. 

Said he, " I can see the quivering and shining of 
that half dollar yet, as in the quick current it went 
down the stream and sunk from my sight forever." 

" My father," he said, " had suffered greatly for 
the want of an education, and he determined at an 
early day that I should be well educated. And what 
do you think he said his ideas of a good education 
were ? We had an old dog-eared arithmetic in our 
house, and father determined that somehow, or some- 
how else, I should cipher clear through that book." 

With this standard of an education, he started to 
a school in a log-house in the neighborhood, and 
began his educational career. He had attended this 
school but about six weeks, however, when a calam- 
ity befell the father. He had endorsed some man's 
note in the neighborhood, for a considerable amount, 
and the prospect was he would have it to pay, and 
that would sweep away all their little possessions. 
His father, therefore, explained to him that he wanted 
to hire him out and receive the fruits of his labor, 
and his aid in averting this calamity. Accordingly, 



LINCOLN'S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE 7 1 

at the expiration of six weeks, he left school, and 
never returned to it again. These six weeks, there- 
fore, constitute the entire sum of his education in 
school. From this time until he was about nineteen, 
he lived in Southern Indiana. He was a strong, 
athletic boy, good-natured, and ready to out-run, 
out-jump and out-wrestle or out-lift anybody in the 
neighborhood. There were in that vicinity a few 
books which he literally devoured — the Bible, Shakes- 
peare, Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress^ Weems' Life of 
Washington, Weems' Life of Marion, etc. He said 
to me that he had got hold of and read through 
every book he ever heard of in that country for a 
circuit of about fifty miles. 

At the age of nineteen his father sold out his 
possessions in Indiana, and loaded all their mova- 
ble goods upon a wagon, and Lincoln drove the 
oxen that hauled them upon this new migration west- 
ward. They arrived in Coles County, Illinois, about 
the month of August, and that fall built a cabin for 
the coming winter and broke land for a crop the 
next year. Lincoln's father gave him his time in 
the autumn of the next year, he coming of age the 
following February. It was a few months before he 
would be entitled to it by operation of law, and he 
started off into the world to seek his fortune. His 
step-mother tied up all his earthly possessions in a 
bundle, and Lincoln, running a stick through it where 



72 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the knot was tied, threw it over his shoulder, and 
started, with his father's and mother's blessing, upon 
a wonderful journey of life. 

It commenced along an old Indian trail from 
Coles to Macon County. See him, as he goes on 
foot through the grasses of the prairie — a tall, lithe, 
young man, a stick and a pack upon his back, start- 
ing out on that unknown journey which took him, 
first to be a rail-splitter, then to the captaincy of a 
flat-boat, then to the life of a little merchant, then to 
a captaincy in the Black Hawk War, to the county 
surveyorship of Sangamon County, to a membership 
in the legislature of the State, to the electorship at 
large for the State, to the championship of oratory 
for Henry Clay in 1844, to a membership in Con- 
gress, in 1846 to 1848, to a conceded position of 
leadership as a member of the bar in the State of 
Illinois, and, lastly, to the presidency and to martyr- 
dom in the country upon which he was then so 
humbly walking. 

Arriving at Macon County he found some cousins 
by the name of Hanks, and in connection with one 
of these young men, that winter took the job of 
splitting rails, at a fixed price per hundred. He 
worked about in this manner, for a year or more, 
when he drifted over the line of Macon into Sanga- 
mon County, and worked for some prominent farmer, 
whose name I have forgotten. 



LINCOLN'S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE J^ 

It was an easy task in those days, in Illinois, to 
raise products, but corn was worth only ten cents 
a bushel, and was sometimes used for fuel. If the 
products could only be marketed, liberal profits 
would arise. Hence Lincoln, while working there, 
conceived the idea of building a flat-boat upon the 
Sangamon River, running it down the Sangamon 
into the Illinois, down the Illinois to the Mississippi, 
and thence to New Orleans. This had never been 
done, and the apparent obstacle was a dam across 
the Sangamon River near Springfield. Lincoln had 
some device by which he thought this obstacle could 
be overcome. 

The enterprise being agreed upon, Mr. Lincoln 
felled, in the forest, the timber, and hewed the beams, 
built the boat, loaded it with provisions, and was then 
elected to his first office, which was the captaincy of 
that flat-boat. The crew consisted of Lincoln, himself 
the Captain, and one or two other men. The dam 
was successfully passed at high water by some device 
I have forgotten, and Lincoln passed down the 
Illinois and the Mississippi to New Orleans, sold 
his cargo there, and worked his passage back by 
assisting in firing on a steamboat. Since his assas- 
sination I have seen and conversed with one of the 
captains of a boat upon which he thus worked his 
passage coming back. 

On the occasion of one of these passages, in the 



74 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

vicinity of Natchez, a negro came very near smash- 
ing the head of the future emancipator of his race. 
The boat one night was tied up to the shore and 
the crew asleep below. A noise being heard Cap- 
tain Lincoln came up, and just as his head emerged 
through the hatchway, a negro, who was pilfering, 
struck him a blow with a heavy stick, but the point 
of the stick reached over his head, and struck the 
floor beyond, at the same time, thus lightening the 
blow on his head, but making a scar which he wore 
always, and which he showed me at the time of 
telling this story. 

After his experience in flat-boating, which lasted 
two or three years, Lincoln resided for awhile in the 
town of New Salem, in Sangamon County. Here 
he was employed as a clerk in a store, and after- 
ward became a partner. I remember well his ex- 
pression in describing that little store, which con- 
tained a very few goods of various kinds. Turning 
to me he said, " I reckon that was the store-keep- 
ing." A difference, however, soon arose between 
him and the old proprietor, the present partner of 
Lincoln, in reference to the introduction of whiskey 
into the establishment. The partner insisted that, 
on the principle that honey catches flies, a barrel of 
whiskey in the store would invite custom, and their 
sales would increase, while Lincoln, who never liked 
liquor, opposed this innovation. He told me, not 



LINCOLN'S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE 75 

more than a year before he was elected President, 
that he had never tasted liquor in his life. " What ! " 
I said, "do you mean to say you never tasted it?" 
"Yes, I never tasted it." The result was that a bar- 
gain was made by which Lincoln should retire from 
his partnership in the store. He was to step out as 
he stepped in. He had nothing when he stepped in, 
and he had nothing when he stepped out. But the 
partner took all the goods, and agreed to pay all the 
debts, for a part of which Mr. Lincoln had become 
jointly liable. 

About this time, the Black Hawk War broke out. 
Black Hawk, an Indian chief near Rock Island, had 
committed some depredations upon the whites, and 
the inhabitants of the State becoming exasperated, 
formed companies and joined the nucleus of officers 
and soldiers of the regular army, and marched 
together to Rock Island, and then marched back 
again. This was about all there was to the war. A 
company was raised and organized at New Salem. 

During Lincoln's youth he had everywhere been 
distinguished as the crowning athlete of the neigh- 
borhood in which he lived. Everywhere along the 
frontier, since that frontier has marched from the 
east westward, some fellow in every neighborhood 
had been " cock of the walk," who could out-wrestle, 
out-run, and out-jump everybody. Lincoln was that 
person wherever he lived in early life. He was that 



y5 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

boy when young in Indiana, and afterward in New 
Salem he made a hero of himself by wrestling, 
running, jumping, lifting, and other innocent amuse- 
ments of that character. He was six feet three and 
a-half inches tall, long-armed, long-limbed, brawny- 
handed, with no superfluous flesh, toughened by 
labor in the open air, of perfect health, and his grip 
was like the grip of Hercules. 

Together with the talk of organizing a company 
in New Salem, began the talk of making Lincoln 
captain of it. His characteristics as an athlete had 
made something of a hero of him. Turning to me 
with a smile at the time, he said, " I cannot tell 
you how much the idea of being the captain of that 
company pleased me." 

But when the day of organization arrived, a man 
who had been captain of a real company arrived 
in his uniform, and assumed the organization of the 
company. The mode of it was as follows : A line of 
two was formed by the company, with the parties 
who intended to be candidates for officers standing 
in front. The candidate for captain then made a 
speech to the men, telling them what a gallant man 
he was, in what wars he had fought, bled and died, 
and how he was ready again, for the glory of his 
country, to lead them. Then another candidate ; 
and when the speech-making was ended, they com- 
manded those who would vote for this man, or that, 



LINCOLN'S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE 



11 



to form a line behind their favorite. Thus there 
were one, two or three Hnes behind the different 
men, as there were different candidates, and then 
they counted back, and the fellow who had the 
longest tail to his kite, was the real captain. It was 
a good way. There was no chance for ballot-box 
stuffing or a false count. 

When the real captain with his regimentals came 
and assumed the control, Lincoln's heart failed him. 
He formed in the line with the boys, and after the 
speech was made they began to form behind the 
old captain, but the boys seized Lincoln, and pushed 
him out of the line, and began to form behind him, 
and cried form behind " Abe," and in a moment of 
irresolution he marched ahead, and when they 
counted back he had two more than the other cap- 
tain, and he became real captain. 

Whatever was to be done in this war, Lincoln 
did well, as we may infer from the facts which 
succeeded his return. As he returned home, he 
found his old partner had been his own best cus- 
tomer at that whiskey barrel, and that all the goods 
were gone, but having failed to pay the debts, there 
were eleven hundred dollars for which Lincoln was 
jointly liable. I cannot forget his face of serious- 
ness as he turned to me and said, " That debt was 
the greatest obstacle I have ever met in life ; I had 
no way of speculating, and could not earn money 

6 



78 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

except by labor, and to earn by labor eleven hundred 
dollars, besides my living, seemed the work of a 
lifetime. There was, however, but one way. I went 
to the creditors and told them that if they would 
let me alone, I would give them all I could earn, 
over my living, as fast as I could earn it." 

Providence is often kinder than our fears. About 
this time events of this character occurred in Lin- 
coln's life. He had previously borrowed some books 
and learned something of surveying, and upon his 
return from the war, was employed in the County 
Surveyor's office of the County of Sangamon, and 
for four years thereafter was elected member of the 
State leg-islature. 

" At that time," said he, " members of the legis- 
lature got four dollars a day, and four dollars a 
day was more than I had ever earned in my life." 

With an economical mode of life which he knew 
so well, he succeeded, with what he saved in winter, 
at the legislature, and what he earned in the sum- 
mer as surveyor, in paying what he called " the 
national debt." 

The life, in the legislature, with politicians de- 
veloped the natural gift he had for public speak- 
ing, and that legislature, in which he was celebrated, 
is to-day remembered in Illinois as the legislature 
of the " long nine," of which Lincoln was one, 
each of the nine being more than six feet tall. 



LINCOLN'S STORY OF HIS OWN LIFE 79 

Although deficient in education acquired at school, 
life was to him a school, and he was always study- 
ing and mastering every subject which came be- 
fore him. He knew how to dig out any question 
from its very roots, and when his own children 
began to go to school, he studied with them, and 
acquired in mature life the elements of an educa- 
tion. I have seen him myself, upon the circuit, 
with "a geometry," or "an astronomy," or some 
book of that kind, working out propositions in 
moments of leisure, or acquiring the information 
that is generally acquired in boyhood. He is the 
only man I have ever known to bridge back thor- 
oughly in the matter of spelling. There are but 
very few college graduates who spell as well as Mr. 
Lincoln spelled. 

At the close of his term in the legislature he was 
persuaded to move to Springfield and study law. 
John T. Stuart, a most eminent lawyer in the State, 
loaned him books, and William Butler, still remem- 
bered as State Treasurer of the State, loaned him 
money and board, and he immediately commenced 
studying and practicing law. He rose in his profession 
with great rapidity, and soon became distinguished 
as a leader in it. He was also a leader of the Whig 
party in the State, and canvassed it in 1840. Again, 
with distinguished ability, he was the champion of 
Henry Clay in 1844, was elevated to Congress in 



8o REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

1846, and in 1848, having made a canvass for Presi- 
dent Taylor, returned upon the circuit, to the prac- 
tice of the law, where I first met him, as described. 

Mr. Lincoln told this story as the story of a happy 
childhood. There was nothing sad nor pinched, and 
nothing of want, and no allusions to want, in any part 
of it. His own description of his youth was that of 
a joyous, happy boyhood. It was told with mirth 
and glee, and illustrated by pointed anecdote, often 
interrupted by his jocund laugh which echoed over 
the prairies. His biographers have given to his 
early life the spirit of suffering and want, and as 
one reads them, he feels like tossing him pennies 
for his relief. Mr. Lincoln gave no such description, 
nor is such description true. His was just such life 
as has always existed and now exists in the frontier 
States, and such boys are not suffering, but are 
rather like Whittier's "Barefoot boy with cheeks 
of tan," and I doubt not Mr. Lincoln in after-life 
would gladly have exchanged the pleasures of grati- 
fied ambition and of power for those hours of 
happy contentment and rest. 

LEONARD SWETT. 

Note. — The courts referred to, on page 68, were presided over by David 
Davis, who was the judge from 1849 ^"til 1862, when he left the bench for 
the Supreme Court of the United States, to which post Mr. Lincoln had 
appointment. Ward W. Lamar was the prosecuting attorney for the last 
five or six years, and also travelled the circuit. 



Ill 

POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 

MR. LINCOLN was nearly eight years my 
senior, and settled in Illinois ten years before 
I did. We first find him in the State splitting rails 
with Thomas Hanks, in Macon County, in 1830. Not 
long afterward he made his way to New Salem, an 
unimportant and insignificant village on the Sanga- 
mon River, in the northern part of Sangamon 
County, fourteen miles from Springfield. In 1839 
a new county was laid off, named " Menard," in honor 
of the first lieutenant-governor of the State, a French 
Canadian, an early settler of the State and a man 
whose memory is held in reverence by the people of 
Illinois, for his enterprise, benevolence and the ad- 
mirable personal traits which adorned his character. 
A distinguished and wealthy citizen of St. Louis, 
allied to him by marriage, Mr. Charles Pierre Chou- 
teau, is now erecting a monument to him, to be 
placed in the State-house grounds at Springfield. 
The settlement of New Salem, now immortalized 
as the early home of Lincoln, fell within the new 
county of " Menard." Remaining there " as a sort 



32 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of clerk in a store," to use his own language, he 
then went into the Black Hawk war and was elected 
captain of a company of mounted volunteers. In 
one of the great debates between Lincoln and Doug- 
las, at Ottawa, in 1858, he, in a somewhat patron- 
izing manner and in a spirit of badinage, spoke of 
having known Lincoln for " twenty-four years " and 
when a " flourishing grocery-keeper " at New Salem. 
The occasion was too good a one not to furnish 
a repartee, and the people insisted that while Lin- 
coln denied that he had been a flourishing "grocery- 
keeper" as stated, yet added that, if he had been, it 
was "certain that his friend, Judge Douglas, would 
have been his best customer." The Black Hawk war 
over, Mr. Lincoln returned to New Salem to eke out 
a scanty existence by doing small jobs of surveying 
and by drawing up deeds and legal instruments for 
his neighbors. In 1834, still living in New Salem, 
he was one of nine members elected from Sangamon 
County to the lower house of the Legislature. 

I landed at Galena by a Mississippi River steam- 
boat, on the first day of April, 1840, ten years after 
Hanks and Lincoln were splitting rails in Macon 
County. 

The country was then fairly entered on that mar- 
velous Presidential campaign between Van Buren 
and Harrison, by far the most exciting election the 
country has ever seen, and which, in my judgment, 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 83 

will never have a parallel, should the country have 
an existence for a thousand years. Illinois was one 
of the seven States that voted for Van Buren, but 
the Whigs contested the election with great zeal and 
most desperate energy. Galena, theretofore better 
known as the Fevre River Lead Mines, still held its 
importance as the center of the lead mining region, 
and was regarded as one of the principal towns in 
the State in point of population, wealth and enter- 
prise. But the bulk of population of the State at 
that time, as well as the weight of political influence, 
was south of Springfield. 

Mr. Lincoln was first elected to the lower branch of 
the Legislature (then sitting at Vandalia), from San- 
gamon County, in 1834; and that was his first appear- 
ance in public life. He was re-elected in 1836, 1838 
and 1840, having served in all four terms — eight years. 
He then peremptorily declined a further election. 

Before his election to the Legislature, Mr. Lincoln 
had read law in a fugitive way at New Salem, but 
arriving at Vandalia, as a member of the Legislature, 
a new field was open to him in the State law library, 
as well as in the miscellaneous library at the capital. 
He then devoted himself most diligently not only to 
the study of law, but to miscellaneous reading. He 
always read understandingly, and there was no prin- 
ciple of law but what he mastered, and such was the 
way in which he always impressed his miscellaneous 



84 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

readings on his mind, that people in his later life 
were amazed at his wonderful familiarity with books, 
even those so little known by the great mass of 
readers. The seat of government of Illinois having 
been removed from Vandalia to Springfield, in 1839, 
the latter place then became the center of political 
influence in the State. 

Mr. Lincoln was not particularly distinguished in 
his legislative service. He participated in the dis- 
cussion of the ordinary subjects of legislation, and 
was regarded as a man of good sense, and a wise and 
practical legislator. His uniform fairness was pro- 
verbial. But he never gave any special evidence of 
that masterly ability for which he was afterward 
distinguished, and which stamped him, as by com- 
mon consent, the foremost man of all the century. 
He was a prominent Whig in politics, and took a 
leading part in all political discussions. There were 
many men of both political parties in the lower house 
of Legislature during the service of Mr. Lincoln, 
who became afterward distinguished in the political 
history of the State, and among them might be 
mentioned Orlando B. Ficklin, John T. Stuart, 
William A. Richardson, John A. McClernand, 
Edward D. Baker, Lewis W. Ross, Samuel D. 
Marshall, Robert Smith, William H. Bissell, and 
John J. Hardin, all subsequently members of Con- 
gress, and James Semple, James Shields, and Lyman 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 85 

Trumbull, United States Senators. There were 
also many men of talent and local reputation, who 
held an honorable place in the public estimation 
and made their mark in the history of the State. 
Springfield was the political center for the Whigs of 
Illinois in 1840. 

. Lincoln had already acquired a high reputation as 
a popular speaker, and he was put on the Harrison 
electoral ticket with the understanding he should 
canvass the State. 

Edward D. Baker was also entered as a campaign 
orator, and wherever he spoke he carried his audi- 
ences captive by the power of his eloquence and the 
strength of his arguments. He was one of the most 
effective stump speakers I ever listened to. It was 
his wonderful eloquence and his power as a stump 
speaker that elected him to Congress from Illinois in 
a district to which he did not belong, and made him 
a United States Senator from Oregon when he was a 
citizen of California. 

John T. Stuart was already known by his success- 
ful canvass with Douglas, in 1838, as an able speaker 
and a popular man ; and John J. Hardin, of Jackson- 
ville, (killed at Buena Vista) was widely known as 
a popular and successful orator. These Springfield 
Whigs led off in canvassing the State for Harrison 
in 1840. 

Lincoln and Baker were assigned to the " Wabash 



86 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Country," where, as Baker once told me, they would 
make speeches one day and shake with the ague the 
next. It is hard to realize at this day what it was to 
make a political canvass in Illinois half a century 
gone by. There were no railroads and but few stage 
lines. The speakers were obliged to travel on horse- 
back, carrying their saddle-bags filled with " hickory" 
shirts and woolen socks. They were frequently 
obliged to travel long distances, through swamps 
and over prairies, to meet their appointments. The 
accommodations were invariably wretched, and no 
matter how tired, jaded and worn the speaker might 
be, he was obliged to respond to the call of the wait- 
ing and eager audiences. 

In 1840, Stephen T. Logan, then a resident of 
Springfield, was one of the best known and most 
prominent men in the State. Though a Whig, he 
was not so much a politician as a lawyer. In 1841, 
he and Mr. Lincoln formed a law partnership which 
continued until 1843, and there was never a stronger 
law firm in the State. Like Lincoln, Logan was a 
Kentuckian, and a self-made man. Though a nat- 
ural born lawyer, he had yet studied profoundly the 
principles of the common law. He was elected a 
circuit judge in 1835, and held the office until 1837. 
He displayed extraordinary qualities as a nisi prius 
judge. In 1842 he consented to serve in the lower 
branch of the Legislature from Sangamon County. 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS gj 

He had even more simplicity of character, and was 
more careless in his dress than Mr. Lincoln. I shall 
never forget the first time I ever saw him. It was 
in the Hall of the House of Representatives, on 
February lo, 1843, and when he was a member of 
that body. He had a reputation at that time as a 
man of ability and a lawyer second to no man in the 
State. I was curious to see the man of whom I had 
heard so much, and I shall never forget the impres- 
sion he made on me. He was a small, thin man, 
with a little wrinkled and weazened face, set off by 
an immense head of hair, which might be called 
"frowzy." He was dressed in linsey-woolsey, and 
wore very heavy shoes. His shirt was of unbleached 
cotton, and unstarched, and he never encumbered 
himself with a cravat or other neck wear. His voice 
was shrill, sharp and unpleasant, and he had not a 
single grace of oratory — but yet, when he spoke, he 
always had interested and attentive listeners. Un- 
derneath this curious and grotesque exterior there 
was a gigantic intellect. When he addressed himself 
to a jury or to a question of law before the courts, 
or made a speech in the Legislature or at the hust- 
ings, people looked upon him and listened with 
amazement. His last appearance in any public posi- 
tion was as a delegate to the " Peace Convention" at 
Washington, in the spring of 1861. In his later 
years he lived the life of a retired gentleman in his 



88 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

beautiful home in the environs of Springjfield. His 
memory has been honored by placing his portrait, 
one of the most admirable ever painted by Healy, 
in the magnificent room of the Supreme Court at 
Springfield. 

I never met Mr. Lincoln till the first time I attended 
the Supreme Court at Springfield, in the winter of 
1843 ^^<i 1844. He had already achieved a certain 
reputation as a public speaker, and was rapidly gain- 
ing distinction as a lawyer. He had already become 
widely known as a Whig politician, and his advice 
and counsel were much sought for by members of the 
party all over the State. One of the great features 
in Illinois, nearly half a century gone by, was the meet- 
ing of the Supreme Court of the State. There was 
but one term of the court a year, and that was held 
first at Vandalia and then at Springfield. The law- 
yers from every part of the State had to follow their 
cases there for final adjudication, and they gathered 
there from all the principal towns of the State. The 
occasion served as a reunion of a large number of the 
ablest men in the State. Many of them had been 
dragged for hundreds of miles over horrible roads in 
stage-coaches or by private conveyance. For many 
years I traveled from Galena, one of the most remote 
parts of the State, to Springfield, in a stage-coach, oc- 
cupying usually three days and four nights, traveling 
incessantly, and arriving at the end of the journey 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 89 

more dead than alive. The Supreme Court library 
was in the court-room, and there the lawyers would 
gather to look up their authorities and prepare their 
cases. In the evening it was a sort of rendezvous 
for general conversation, and I hardly ever knew of 
an evening to pass without Mr. Lincoln putting in 
his appearance. He was a man of the most social 
disposition and was never so happy as when sur- 
rounded by congenial friends. His penchant for 
story-telling is well known, and he was more happy 
in that line than any man I ever knew. But many 
stories have been invented and attributed to him that 
he never heard of. Never shall I forget him as he 
appeared almost every evening in the court-room, 
sitting in a cane-bottom chair leaning up against the 
partition, his feet on a round of the chair, and sur- 
rounded by many listeners. But there was one thing, 
he never pressed his stories on unwilling ears nor 
endeavored to absorb all attention to himself. But 
his anecdotes were all so droll, so original, so appro- 
priate and so illustrative of passing incidents that 
one never wearied. He never repeated a story or an 
anecdote, nor vexed the dull ears of a drowsy man 
by thrice-told tales ; and he enjoyed a good story 
from another as much as any person. 

There were many good story-tellers in that group 
of lawyers that assembled evenings in that Supreme 
Court-room, and among them was the Hon. Thomp- 



QO REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

son Campbell, Secretary of State under Gov. Ford 
from 1843 to 1846. Mr. Campbell was a brilliant 
man and a celebrated wit. Though differing in poli- 
tics, until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, he 
and Mr. Lincoln were strong personal friends, and 
many of his stories, like those of Mr. Lincoln, have 
gone into the traditions of the State. They were 
never so happy as when together and listening to the 
stories of each other. Mr. Campbell was elected to 
Congress from the Galena district in 1850, and served 
one term. In 1853 President Pierce appointed him 
a judge of the United States Land Court of Cali- 
fornia. 

Mr. Lincoln was universally popular with his as- 
sociates. Of an even temper, he had a simplicity 
and charm of manner which took hold, at once, on 
all persons with whom he came in contact. He was 
of the most amiable disposition, and not given to 
speak unkindly of any person, but quick to discover 
any weak points that person might have. He was 
always the center of attraction in the court-room at 
the evening gatherings, and all felt there was a great 
void when, for any reason, he was kept away. 

The associates of Mr. Lincoln at the bar, at this 
time, were, most of them, men of ability, who gave 
promise of future distinction both at the bar and in 
the field of politics. The lawyers of that day were 
brought much closer together than they ever have 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 9 1 

been since, and the " esprit dtt corps " was much 
more marked. Coming from long- distances and 
suffering great privations in their journeys, they 
usually remained a considerable time in attendance 
upon the court. 

Among the noted lawyers at this time, the friends 
and associates of Mr. Lincoln, who subsequently 
reached high political distinction, were John J. 
Hardin, falling bravely at the head of his regiment 
at Buena Vista ; Lyman Trumbull, for eighteen 
years United States Senator from Illinois ; James 
A. McDougall, Attorney-General of Illinois, and 
subsequently member of Congress and United 
States Senator from California ; Stephen A. Doug- 
las, Edward D. Baker, Thompson Campbell, Joseph 
Gillespie, O. B. Ficklin, Archibald Williams, James 
Shields, Isaac N. Arnold (who was to become Mr. 
Lincoln's biographer); Norman H. Purple, O. H. 
Browning, subsequently United States Senator and 
Secretary of the Interior, Judge Thomas Drum- 
mond, of the United States Circuit Court, and many 
others, all the contemporaries of Mr. Lincoln, and 
always holding with him the most cordial and 
friendly relations. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1844, Mr. Lincoln 
canvassed the State very thoroughly for Mr. Clay, 
and added much to his already well-established repu- 
tation as a stump speaker. His reputation also as a 



92 REMINtSCEMCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lawyer had steadily increased. In August, 1846, he 
was elected to Congress as a Whig from the Spring- 
field district. 

Ceasing to attend the courts at Springfield, I saw 
but little of Mr. Lincoln for a few years. We met 
at the celebrated River and Harbor Convention at 
Chicago, held July 5, 6 and 7, 1847. He was simply 
a looker on, and took no leading part in the conven- 
tion. His dress and personal appearance on that 
occasion could not well be forgotten. It was then 
for the first time I heard him called " Old Abe." 
Old Abe, as applied to him, seems strange enough, 
as he was then a young man, only thirty-six years of 
age. One afternoon, several of us sat on the side- 
walk under the balcony in front of the Sherman 
House, and among the number the accomplished 
scholar and unrivaled orator, Lisle Smith. He sud- 
denly interrupted the conversation by exclaiming, 
" There is Lincoln on the other side of the street. 
Just look at * Old Abe,' " and from that time we all 
called him " Old Abe." No one who saw him can 
forget his personal appearance at that time. Tall, 
angular and awkward, he had on a short-waisted, 
thin swallow-tail coat, a short vest of same material, 
thin pantaloons, scarcely coming down to his ankles, 
a straw hat and a pair of brogans with woolen socks. 

Mr. Lincoln was always a great favorite with 
young men, particularly with the younger members 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 93 

of the bar. It Avas a popularity not run after, but 
which followed. He never used the arts of the 
demagogue to ingratiate himself with any person. 
Beneath his ungainly exterior he wore a golden 
heart. He was ever ready to do an act of kindness 
whenever in his power, particularly to the poor and 
lowly. 

Mr. Lincoln took his seat in Congress on the first 
Monday in December, 1847. ^ was in attendance 
on the Supreme Court of the United States at 
Washington that winter, and as he was the only 
member of Congress from the State who was in har- 
mony with my own political sentiments, I saw much 
of him and passed a good deal of time in his room. 
He belonged to a mess that boarded at Mrs. Spriggs, 
in "Duff Green's Row" on Capitol Hill. At the 
first session, the mess was composed of John Blanch- 
ard, John Dickey, A. R. Mcllvaine, James Pollock, 
John Strohm, of Pennsylvania; Elisha Embree, of 
Indiana ; Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio ; A. Lincoln, 
of Illinois, and P. W. Tompkins, of Mississippi. 
The same members composed the mess at Mrs. 
Spriggs' the short session, with the exception of 
Judge Embree and Mr. Tompkins. Without excep- 
tion, these gentlemen are all dead. He sat in the 
old hall of the House of Representatives, and for 
the long session was so unfortunate as to draw one 

of the most undesirable seats in the hall. He par- 
7 



94 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ticipated but little in the active business of the 
House, and made the personal acquaintance of but 
few members. He was attentive and conscientious 
in the discharge of his duties, and followed the 
course of legislation closely. When he took his seat 
in the House, the campaign of 1848 for President 
was just opening. Out of the small number of 
Whig members of Congress who were favorable to 
the nomination of General Taylor by the Whig Con- 
vention, he was one of the most ardent and out- 
spoken. The following letter addressed to me on 
the subject will indicate the warmth of his support 
of General Taylor's nomination : 

Washington, April ^o, 1848. 
Dear Washburne : 

I have this moment received your very short note 
asking me if old Taylor is to be used up, and who 
will be the nominee. My hope of Taylor's nomina- 
tion Is as high — a little higher than when you left. 
Still the case is by no means out of doubt. Mr. 
Clay's letter has not advanced his interests any here. 
Several who were against Taylor, but not for any- 
body particularly before, are since taking ground, 
some for Scott and some for McLean. Who will be 
nominated, neither I nor any one else can tell. Now, 
let me pray to you in turn. My prayer is, that you 
let nothing discourage or baffle you, but that in spite 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 



95 



of every difficulty you send us a good Taylor dele- 
gate from your circuit. Make Baker, who is now 
with you I suppose, help about it. He is a good 
hand to raise a breeze. General Ashley, in the Sen- 
ate from Arkansas, died yesterday. Nothing else 
new, beyond what you see in the papers. 

Yours truly, 

A. LINCOLN. 

I was again in Washington part of the winter of 
1849 (after the election of General Taylor), and saw 
much of Mr. Lincoln. A small number of mutual 
friends — including Mr. Lincoln — made up a party to 
attend the inauguration ball together. It was by far 
the most brilliant inauguration ball ever given. Of 
course Mr. Lincoln had never seen anything of the 
kind before. One of the most modest and unpre- 
tending persons present — he could not have dreamed 
that like honors were to come to him, almost within 
a little more than a decade. He was greatly inter- 
ested in all that was to be seen, and we did not take 
our departure until three or four o'clock in the morn- 
ing. When we went to the cloak and hat room, Mr. 
Lincoln had no trouble in finding his short cloak, 
which little more than covered his shoulders, but, 
after a long search, was unable to find his hat. After 
an hour he gave up all idea of finding it. Taking 
his cloak on his arm, he walked out into Judiciary 



g6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Square, deliberately adjusting it on his shoulders, and 
started off bareheaded for his lodgings. It would be 
hard to forget the sight of that tall and slim man, 
with his short cloak thrown over his shoulders, start- 
ing for his long walk home on Capitol Hill, at four 
o'clock in the morning, without any hat on. 

And this incident is akin to one related to me by 
the librarian of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. Mr. Lincoln came to the library one day for 
the purpose of procuring some law books which he 
wanted to take to his room for examination. Get- 
ting together all the books he wanted, he placed 
them in a pile on a table. Taking a large bandana 
handkerchief from his pocket, he tied them up, and 
putting a stick which he had brought with him 
through a knot he had made in the handkerchief, 
adjusting the package of books to his stick he shoul- 
dered it, and marched off from the library to his 
room. In a few days he returned the books in the 
same way. 

Mr. Lincoln declined to run for Congress for a 
second term, 1848. His old partner and friend, 
Judge Stephen T. Logan, was the Whig candidate, 
and, to the amazement of every one, was defeated 
by a Democrat, Colonel Thomas L. Harris, of " Me- 
nard" County. 

From 1849, ^^ returning from Congress, until 
1854, he practiced law more assiduously than ever 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 97 

before. In respect to that period of his life he once 
wrote to a friend : 

" I was losing interest in politics when the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again." 

There was a great upturning in the political situa- 
tion in Illinois, brought about by the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise in 1854. In the fall of that 
year an election was to be held in Illinois for mem- 
bers of Congress and for members of the Legislature 
which was to elect a successor to General Shields, 
who had committed what was to the people of Illi- 
nois, the unpardonable sin of voting for the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise. There was something in 
that legislation which was particularly revolting to 
Mr. Lincoln, as it outraged all his ideas of political 
honesty and fair dealing. 

There was an exciting canvass in the State, and 
Mr. Lincoln entered into it with great spirit, and ac- 
complished great results by his powerful speeches. 
From his standing in the State and from the great 
service he had rendered in the campaign, it was 
agreed that if the Republicans and anti-Nebraska 
men should carry the Legislature, Mr. Lincoln would 
succeed General Shields. I know that he himself 
expected it. There is a long and painful history of 
that Senatorial contest yet to be written, and when 
the whole truth is disclosed it will throw a flood of 
new light on the character of Mr. Lincoln, and will 



g8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

add new luster to his greatness, his generosity, his 
magnanimity and his patriotism. There is no event 
in Mr. Lincoln's entire political career that brought 
to him so much disappointment and chagrin as his 
defeat for United States Senator in 1855, but he 
accepted the situation uncomplainingly, and never 
indulged in reproaches or criticism upon any one ; 
but, on the other hand, he always formed excuses for 
those who had been charged with not acting in good 
faith toward him and to those with whom he was 
associated. He never forgot the obligations he was 
under to those who had faithfully stood by him in 
his contest, through good and evil report. 

Allied to him by the strongest ties of personal and 
political friendship, I did all in my power to secure 
for him, which I did, the support of the members 
of the Legislature from my Congressional District. 
The day after the election for Senator he addressed 
to me a long letter, several pages of letter-paper, 
giving a detailed account of the contest and the rea- 
sons of his action in persuading his friends to vote 
for and elect Judge Trumbull, and expressing the 
opinion that I would have acted in the same way if 
I had been in his place. He then says : 

" I regret my defeat moderately, but am not ner- 
vous about it. * * * Perhaps it is as well for 
our grand cause that Trumbull is elected." 

He then closes his letter as follows : 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS gg 

" With my grateful acknowledgments for the kind, 
active, and continual interest you have taken for me 
in this matter, allow me to subscribe myself, 

" Yours, forever, 

"A. LINCOLN." 

On the last day of the balloting In the Legislature, 
it seemed inevitable that a Nebraska Democrat would 
be elected United States Senator. Judge Trumbull 
had the votes of five anti-Nebraska Democrats. And 
of this crisis Mr. Lincoln writes to me : 

" So I determined to strike at once, and accord- 
ingly advising my friends to go for him, which they 
did, and elected him on that, the loth ballot." 

ThouQrh the failure to elect Mr. Lincoln brought 
grief to many hearts, yet the election of Judge 
Trumbull was well received by the entire anti- 
Nebraska party in the State. He proved himself an 
able, true and loyal Senator, rendered great services 
to the Union cause, and proved himself a worthy 
representative of a great, loyal and patriotic State. 

Notwithstanding the great satisfaction with which 
Judge Trumbull's election had been received, there 
was a deep and profound feeling among the old 
Whigs, the Republicans and many anti-Nebraska 
Democrats, that Mr. Lincoln should have had the 
position, and that he had not been fairly treated. 
But never a complaint or a suggestion of that 



lOO REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

kind escaped the lips of Mr. Lincoln. Cheerily and 
bravely and contentedly he went back to his law 
office, and business poured in upon him more than 
ever. 

In stepping one side and securing the election of 
Judge Trumbull, he " builded better than he knew." 
Had Mr. Lincoln been elected Senator at that time, 
he would never have had the canvass with Judge 
Douglas in 1858, never been elected President in 
i860, to leave a name that will never die. 

From 1855 to 1858, Mr. Lincoln was absorbed in 
the practice of his profession, though he took an 
active part in the canvass of 1856, when the gallant 
Colonel Bissell was elected Governor. But what 
was somewhat remarkable, in all this time, without 
the least personal effort, and without any resort to 
the usual devices of politicians, Mr, Lincoln's popu- 
larity continued to increase in every portion of the 
State. 

In the fall of 1858, there was to be an election 
of a Legislature which would choose a successor 
to Judge Douglas, whose term of service was to 
expire March 3, 1859. The Republican party by 
this time, had become completely organized and 
solidified, and in Illinois the Republican and Dem- 
ocratic parties squarely confronted each other. 
Everywhere, by common consent, no Republican 
candidate for Senator was spoken of except Mr. 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS lOI 

Lincoln. In the Republican State Convention in 
the summer of 1858, a resolution was unanimously 
passed designating Mr. Lincoln as the unanimous 
choice of the Republicans of the State, as the candi- 
date for United States Senator, to succeed Judge 
Douglas. That action is without precedent in the 
State, and shows the deep hold Mr. Lincoln had on 
his party. 

Without being designated by any authorized body 
of Democrats, yet by common consent of the party, 
Judge Douglas became the candidate of the Demo- 
cratic party. No other candidates were mentioned 
on either side, either directly or indirectly. 

The seven joint discussions which the candidates 
had in different parts of the State have become a 
part of the political history of the country. It was 
a battle of the giants. The parties were rallied, as 
one man, to the enthusiastic support of their respec- 
tive candidates, and it is hard for any one not in the 
State at the time to measure the excitement which 
everywhere prevailed. There was little talk about 
Republicanism and Democracy, but it was all " Lin- 
coin and Douglas," or " Douglas and Lincoln." I 
attended only one of these joint discussions. It was 
at Freeport, in my Congressional District, which 
was the bulwark of Republicanism in the State. 
Two years later it gave Mr. Lincoln a majority for 
President of nearly fourteen thousand, and my own 



I02 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

majority for member of Congress was about the 
same. The Freeport discussion was held in August. 
The day was bright, but the wind sweeping down 
the prairies gave us a chilly afternoon for an out-of- 
door gathering. In company with a large number 
of Galena people, we reached Freeport by train, 
about ten o'clock in the mornine. Mr. Lincoln had 
come in from the south the same morning, and we 
found him at the Brewster House, which was a 
sort of rallying-point for the Republicans. He had 
stood his campaign well, and was in splendid con- 
dition. He was surrounded all the forenoon by 
sturdy Republicans, who had come long distances, 
not only to hear him speak, but to see him, and it 
was esteemed the greatest privilege to shake hands 
with " Honest Old Abe." He had a kind word or 
some droll remark for every one, and it is safe to 
say that no one who spoke to him that day will ever 
have the interview effaced from memory. The 
meeting was held on a vacant piece of ground, not 
far from the center of the town. The crowd was 
immense and the enthusiasm great. Each party 
tried to outdo the other in the applause for its 
own candidate. The speaking commenced, but the 
chilly air dampened the ardor of the audience. Mr. 
Lincoln spoke deliberately, and apparently under a 
deep sense of the responsibility which rested upon 
him. The questions he propounded to Mr. Douglas 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 



103 



he had put in writing (and the answers to which 
sounded the political death-knell of Mr. Douglas) ; 
he read slowly, and with great distinctness. The 
speech of Mr. Douglas was not up to his usual 
standard. He was evidently embarrassed by the 
questions, and floundered in his replies. The crowd 
was large, the wind was chilly, and there was neces- 
sarily much " noise and confusion," and the audience 
did not take in the vast importance of the debate. 
On the whole, it may be said that neither party was 
fully satisfied with the speeches, and the meeting 
broke up without any display of enthusiasm. 

It is not my purpose in this essay to follow the 
incidents of the Presidential campaign of i860. The 
great event in Illinois was the monster Republican 
mass meeting held at Springfield during the canvass. 
It was a meeting for the whole State, and more in 
the nature of a personal ovation to Mr. Lincoln than 
merely a political gathering. It was one of the most 
enormous and impressive gatherings I had ever wit- 
nessed. 

Mr. Lincoln, surrounded by some intimate friends, 
sat on the balcony of his humble home. It took 
hours for all the delegations to file before him, and 
there was no token of enthusiasm wanting. He was 
deeply touched by the manifestations of personal and 
political friendship, and returned all his salutations 
in that off-hand and kindly manner which belonged 



I04 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

to him. I know of no demonstration of a similar 
character that can compare with it except the review 
by Napoleon of his army for the invasion of Russia, 
about the same season of the year in 1812. 

Mr. Lincoln remained quietly at his own home in 
Springfield during the Presidential canvass of i860, 
but he watched narrowly all the incidents of the cam- 
paign. On the 26th of May he wrote me as follows : 

" * * * I have your letters written since the 
nominations, but till now I have found no moment 
to say a word by way of answer. Of course I am 
glad that the nomination is well received by our 
friends, and I sincerely thank you for so informing 
me. So far as I can learn, the nominations take well 
everywhere, and if we get no back-set, it would seem 
as if they were going through. 

" I hope you will write often ; and as you write 
more rapidly than I do, don't make your letters so 
short as mine. 

"Yours, very truly, 

*'A. LINCOLN." 

Mr. Lincoln had his periods of anxiety and deep 
concern during the canvass. As chairman of the 
House Congressional (Republican) Committee, I was 
engaged at Washington during the campaign. On 
the 9th of September Mr. Lincoln wrote me as fol- 
lows from Springfield; 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS I05 

"Yours of the 5th was received last evening. I 
was right glad to get it. It contains the latest 
'posting' which I now have. It relieves me some 
from a little anxiety I had about Maine. Jo. Medill, 
on August 30th, wrote me that Colfax had a letter 
from Mr. Hamlin, saying we were in great danger of 
losing two members of Congress in Maine, and that 
your brother would not have exceeding six thousand 
majority for Governor. I addressed you at once, at 
Galena, asking for your latest information. As you 
are at Washington, that letter you will receive some 
time after the Maine election. 

" Yours, very truly, 

"A. LINCOLN." 

Though the election was over there came gloomy 
days for Mr. Lincoln, but he pondered well on the 
great problem before him. He had weighed well all 
the important questions which had arisen, and in 
him there was neither change nor shadow of turning. 
On the 13th day of December he wrote to me as 
follows : 

" Hon. E. B. Washburne : 

" My dear Sir : — Your long letter received. 
Prevent as far as possible any of our friends from 
demoralizing themselves and our cause by entertain- 
ing propositions for compromise of any sort on 
slavery extension. There is no possible compromise 



Io6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

upon it, but which puts us under again, and all our 
work to do over again. Whether it be a Missouri 
line or Eli Thayer's Popular Sovereignty, it is all 
the same. — Let either be done, and immediately 
filibustering and extending slavery recommences. 
On that point hold firm as a chain of steel. 

" Yours, as ever, 

"A. LINCOLN." 

As the time of inauguration drew near there was 
an intense anxiety, not unmingled with trepidation, 
all over the loyal North as to how Mr. Lincoln 
might meet the approaching crisis. Many and 
varied were the speculations as to what course he 
would take. Looking at his character and life, many 
feared he had not fully comprehended the gravity 
of the situation. On the contrary, Mr. Lincoln had 
weighed the whole matter and fully determined in 
his own mind what course he would pursue. In 
December, i860, he wrote me the following letter : 

" Confidential. 

"Springfield, Dec. 21, i860. 
" Hon. E. B. Washburne : 

" My dear Sir : — Last night I received your letter, 
giving an account of your interview with General 
Scott, and for which I thank you. Please present 
jny respects to the General and tell him confidentially 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS I07 

I shall be obliged to him to be as well prepared as 
he can to either hold, or retake, the forts, as the case 
may require, at and after the inauguration. 

"Yours, as ever, 

"A. LINCOLN." 

On the 13th of February, 1861, the two Houses 
of Congress met in joint session to count and declare 
the electoral vote. As in all times of great excite- 
ment, the air was filled with numberless and absurd 
rumors; a few were in fear that in some unforeseen 
way the ceremony of the count might be interrupted 
and the result not declared. And hence all Wash' 
ington was on the qui vive. The joint meeting was 
to take place in the Hall of the House of Represent- 
atives at hiorh noon. An immense throncr filled the 
House end of the Capitol. All the gilded corridors 
leading to the Hall of the House were crowded, and 
the galleries packed. Beautiful and gorgeously 
dressed ladies entered the Hall, found their way into 
the cloak rooms, and many of them occupied the 
seats of the members, who gallantly surrendered 
them for the occasion. 

At twenty minutes after twelve, the door-keeper 
announced the Senate of the United States. The 
Senators entered, headed by their President, Hon. 
John C. Breckenridge, the members of the House 
risins: to receive them. The Vice-President took his 



jo8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

seat on the right of the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives (the Hon. William Pennington, of 
New Jersey). The joint convention of the two 
Houses was presided over by Mr. Breckenridge, who 
served out his term of Vice-President, till March 4, 
1861. The Hon. Lyman Trumbull was appointed 
teller on the part of the Senate, and Messrs. Phelps, 
of Missouri, and Washburne, of Illinois, on the part 
of the House. The count proceeded without inci- 
dent, and the Vice-President announced the election 
of Lincoln and Hamlin. Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, then 
offered the ordinary resolution of notification to the 
President elect, by a committee of two members from 
the House, to be joined by one member from the 
Senate. Mr. Hindman, of Arkansas, one of the most 
violent and vindictive secessionists, insisted that the 
same committee " inform General Scott that there 
was no more use for his janizaries about the Capitol, 
the votes being counted and the result proclaimed." 
Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, responded that gentle- 
men seemed to trouble themselves a good deal about 
General Scott on all occasions. 

There was a certain feeling of relief among the 
loyal people of the country that Mr. Lincoln had 
been declared to be duly elected President, without 
the least pretense of illegality or irregularity. 

The second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress 
convened on the first Monday of December, 1861. 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS lOQ 

The Senators and Representatives of the rebellious 
States were no longer with us. The rumblings of 
treason, deep and significant, were everywhere heard. 
What was to be the outcome no one could tell. 
Anxiety and sadness sat enthroned in both Houses, 
but there was faith unshaken and courage unsub- 
dued. A state of things existed well calculated to 
shake the stoutest hearts. 

The loyal members of both Senate and House 
were closely organized to concert measures to meet 
the appalling emergencies that confronted them. It 
was determined that each House should appoint one 
of its members to form a committee to watch the cur- 
rent of events and discover as far as possible the in- 
tentions and acts of the rebels. This committee of 
" Public Safety," as it might be called, was a small 
one, only two members, Governor Grimes, the Sen- 
ator from Iowa, on the part of the Senate, and my- 
self on the part of the House. Clothed with full 
powers, we at once put ourselves in communication 
with General Scott, the head of the army, with head- 
quarters at Washington, and Chief of Police Ken- 
nedy, of New York City, a loyal and true man with 
a skill unsurpassed by a Fouche or a Vidocq. He 
at once sent us some of his most skillful and trusted 
detectives ; and earnestly, loyally, and courageously 
they went to work to unravel the plots and schemes 
set on foot to destroy us. And never was detective 



no REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

work more skillfully and faithfully done, not only in 
Washington, but in Baltimore and Richmond and 
Alexandria. They were all good rebels ; they had 
long beards and wore slouched hats and seedy coats ; 
they chewed tobacco and smoked cheap cigars ; 
damned the Yankees and drank bad whisky; and 
they obtained a great deal of valuable information 
in respect to hostile plans and schemes. 

As the 4th of March drew near, what occupied our 
most anxious thought was, how Mr. Lincoln could 
get to Washington and be inaugurated. Another 
committee was formed, one from each House, to look 
after that matter. Governor Seward was the Senate 
member, and I was put on on the part of the House, 
for the reason, perhaps, that I was from Illinois, a 
known personal friend of the President who had been 
in close correspondence with him all winter. Asso- 
ciating ourselves together, we came to the conclusion 
that everything must be done with the most profound 
secrecy. Governor Seward, his son Frederic W. 
Seward, subsequently his Assistant Secretary of State, 
and myself were the only persons in Washington who 
had any knowledge whatever of Mr. Lincoln's pro- 
posed movements. That there was a conspiracy in 
Baltimore to assassinate him as he should pass 
through, there can be no reasonable doubt. We 
hoped he might be able to come through in the day- 
time from Philadelphia, taking a train secretly and 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS III 

cutting the wires, so that his departure could not be 
known. But General Scott's detectives in Baltimore 
had developed such a condition of things, that Gov- 
ernor Seward thought that the President-elect and 
his friends in Philadelphia should be advised in regard 
thereto, and on the night of the 2 2d of February he 
sent his son, Frederic W., over to Philadelphia to 
consult with them. Till now we had believed the 
President would come over from Philadelphia on the 
train leaving there at noon of the 23d. In the mean 
time the President had promised to run up to Harris- 
burg to attend a reception of the Pennsylvania Legis- 
lature at twelve o'clock on that day. Up to this time 
the situation had been fully discussed by the friends 
of Mr. Lincoln in the light of all the information re- 
ceived, but no particular programme agreed upon. It 
was not until the party started for Harrisburg the 
next morning that the best method of getting to 
Washington was finally talked over. Mr. Lincoln 
had previously had a conversation with the detective 
Pinkerton and Mr. Frederic W. Seward in regard to 
the condition of things at Baltimore. The Hon. Nor- 
man B. Judd, of Chicago, one of the most conspicuous 
and trusted friends of Mr. Lincoln, who had accom- 
panied the party from Springfield, suggested a plan 
which, after full discussion by Mr. Lincoln and all his 
friends present, was agreed upon and successfully 
carried out. This plan, as is generally known, was that 



112 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

after the dinner which Governor Curtin had tendered 
to him had been finished, at six o'clock in the after- 
noon, he should take a special car and train from 
Harrisburg for Philadelphia to intercept the night 
train from New York to Washington. The telegraph 
wires from Harrisburg were all cut, so there could be 
no possible telegraphic connection with the outside 
world. 

The connection was made at Philadelphia. Mr. 
Lincoln was transferred to the Washington train 
without observation, to arrive at his destination on 
time the next morning without the least miscarriage, 
as will be stated hereafter. On the afternoon of the 
23d, Mr. Seward came to my seat in the House of 
Representatives, and told me he had no information 
from his son nor any one else in respect of Mr. 
Lincoln's movements, and that he could have none, 
as the wires were all cut, but he thought it very 
probable he would arrive in the regular train from 
Philadelphia, and he suggested that we would meet 
at the depot to receive him. We were promptly 
on hand ; the train arrived in time, and with strained 
eyes we watched the descent of the passengers. But 
there was no Mr. Lincoln among them ; though 
his arrival was by no means certain, yet we were 
much disappointed. But as there was no telegraphic 
connection, it was impossible for us to have any in- 
formation. It was no use to speculate — sad, disap- 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS II3 

pointed, and under the empire of conflicting emo- 
tions we separated to go to our respective homes, 
but agreeing to be at the depot on the arrival of the 
New York train the next morning before daylight, 
hoping either to meet the President or get some 
information as to his movements. I was on hand in 
season, but to my great disappointment Governor 
Seward did not appear. I planted myself behind 
one of the great pillars in the old Washington and 
Baltimore depot, where I could see and not be ob- 
served. Presently the train came rumbling in on 
time. It was a moment of great anxiety to me. 

There has been a great deal printed in the news- 
papers about Mr. Lincoln's arrival in Washington 
and about the " Scotch cap " and " big shawl " he 
wore through Baltimore, etc., etc., most of which is 
mere stuff. I propose now to tell about his arrival 
at Washington, from my own personal knowledge — 
what I saw with my own eyes and what I heard with 
my own ears, not the eyes and ears of some one else. 

As I have stated, I stood behind the pillar await- 
ing the arrival of the train. When it came to a 
stop I watched with fear and trembling to see the 
passengers descend. I saw every car emptied, and 
there was no Mr. Lincoln. I was well-nigh in de- 
spair, and when about to leave I saw slowly emerge 
from the last sleeping car three persons. I could 
not mistake the long, lank form of Mr. Lincoln, and 



114 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

my heart bounded with joy and gratitude. He had 
on a soft low-crowned hat, a muffler around his neck, 
and a short bob-tailed overcoat. Any one who knew 
him at that time could not have failed to recognize 
him at once, but, I must confess, he looked more like 
a well-to-do farmer from one of the back towns of 
Jo Daviess County coming to Washington to see the 
city, take out his land warrant and get the patent for 
his farm, than the President of the United States. 

The only persons that accompanied Mr. Lincoln 
were Pinkerton, the well-known detective, recently 
deceased, and Ward H. Lamon. When they were 
fairly on the platform and a short distance from the 
car, I stepped forward and accosted the President : 
" How are you, Lincoln?" 

At this unexpected and rather familiar salutation 
the gentlemen were apparently somewhat startled, 
but Mr. Lincoln, who had recognized me, relieved 
them at once by remarking in his peculiar voice : 

" This is only Washburne ! " 

Then we all exchanged congratulations and 
walked out to the front of the depot, where I had a 
carriage in waiting. Entering the carriage (all four 
of us) we drove rapidly to Willard's Hotel, entering 
on Fourteenth Street, before it was fairly daylight. 
The porter showed us into the little receiving room 
at the head of the stairs, and at my direction went 
to the office to have Mr. Lincoln assigned a room. 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS II5 

We had not been in the hotel more than two 
minutes before Governor Seward hurriedly entered, 
much out of breath and somewhat chagrined to 
think he had not been up in season to be at the 
depot on the arrival of the train. The meeting of 
those two great men under the extraordinary cir- 
cumstances which surrounded them was full of emo- 
tion and thankfulness. I soon took my leave, but 
not before promising Governor Seward that I would 
take breakfast with him at eight o'clock ; and as I 
passed out the outside door the Irish porter said to 
me with a smiling face : 

" And by faith it is you who have brought us a 
Prisidint." 

At eight the Governor and I sat down to a simple 
and relishing breakfast. We had been relieved of 
a load of anxiety almost too great to bear. The 
President had reached V/ashington safely and our 
spirits were exalted, and with a sense of great satis- 
faction we sipped our delicious coffee and loaded 
our plates with the first run of Potomac shad. 

Mr. Blaine, in his Twenty Years of Congress, 
has been led into an error in speaking of the man- 
ner in which Lincoln reached Washington. He 
says : 

"He reached Washington by a night journey 
taken secretly, much against his own will and to his 
subsequent chagrin and mortification, but urged 



Il6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

upon him by the advice of those in whose advice 
and wisdom he was forced to confide." 

The only truth in the statement is that he 
"reached Washington by a night journey taken 
secretly." 

I was the first man to see him after his arrival in 
Washington and talk with him of the incidents of 
his journey, and I know he was neither "mortified" 
nor " chagrined " at the manner in which he reached 
Washington. He expressed to me in the warmest 
terms his satisfaction at the complete success of his 
journey ; and I have it from persons who were about 
him in Philadelphia and Harrisburg that the plan 
agreed upon met his hearty approval, and he ex- 
pressed a cheerful willingness to adapt himself to 
the novel circumstances. I do not believe that Mr. 
Lincoln ever expressed a regret that he had not, 
"according to his own desire, gone through Balti- 
more in open day," etc. It is safe to say he never 
had any such "desire." His own detective, Pin- 
kerton, a man who had his entire confidence, had 
been some time in Baltimore, with several members 
of his force, in unraveling rebel plots, produced to 
him the most conclusive evidence of a conspiracy to 
assassinate him. General Scott's detectives had dis- 
covered the same thing, and there was a great deal 
of individual testimony tending to establish the same 
fact. While Mr. Lincoln would have confronted any 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS II7 

danger in the performance of duty, he was not a 
man given to bravado and quixotic schemes, and 
what he subsequently stated touching this matter 
comprises really all there is in it. He declared : 

" I did not believe then, nor do I now believe I 
should have been assassinated had I gone through 
Baltimore as first contemplated, but / thought it 
wise to run no risk where no risk was necessary.'''^ 

In the same paragraph Mr. Blaine says, that " it 
must be creditable to the administration of Mr. Bu- 
chanan that ample provision had been made for the 
protection of the rightful ruler of the nation" (p. 
240). If Mr. Blaine means by this that Mr. Bu- 
chanan, driven by public indignation, had ordered 
a few straggling companies of regular infantry to 
Washington, that is one thing ; but if he referred to 
the protection of the "rightful ruler" of the nation 
in getting to Washington, his good faith was imposed 
upon. I was in a position to know all that was going 
on in relation to Mr. Lincoln's journey to Washing- 
ton, and I never heard it suggested or hinted that Mr. 
Buchanan occupied himself with that matter. I am 
satisfied he had no more knowledge of Mr. Lincoln's 
movements than those of " the man in the moon." 

I cannot here recount all Mr. Lincoln's acts of 
kindness to me while President. He always seemed 
anxious to gratify me, and I can recollect of no 

* Lossine's Pictorial History of the Rebellion, vol. i., p. 279. 



1 1 S REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

single favor that I asked of him that he did not 
cheerfully accord. I will mention a simple incident. 
In the fall of 1863, my brother, Gen. Washburne, 
of Wisconsin, was stationed at a most unhealthy 
camp at Helena, Arkansas. He was taken danger- 
ously sick with malarial dysentery, and there was 
little prospect of his recovery unless he could be 
removed to some healthier location. I wrote to Mr. 
Lincoln, briefly, asking for a leave of absence for 
him for cause of health, and in due time I received 
the following reply : 

" Private and Confidential. 

Executive Mansion, ) 
Washington, Oct. 26, 1863. f 

"Hon. E. B. Washburne: 

''My dear Sir: — Yours of the 12th has been in 
my hands several days. Inclosed I send a leave of 
absence for your brother, in as good form as I think 
I can safely put it. Without knowing whether he 
would accept it, I have tendered the collectorship of 
Portland, Maine, to your other brother, the Governor. 

"Thanks to both you and our friend Campbell for 
your kind words and intentions. A second term 
would be a great honor, and a great labor, which 
together, perhaps, I would not decline, if tendered. 

" Yours truly, 

"A. LINCOLN." 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 



119 



This last paragraph refers to a letter of the Hon. 
Thompson Campbell, whom I have before referred to 
in this essay, and in which we asked permission to 
bring him forward as a candidate for a re-election. 

But I must bring my contribution to a close. The 
rebellion, in April, 1865, was fast approaching an end. 
Having expressed a desire to be at the front, wher- 
ever that might be, when the hour of its final collapse 
might come finally to strike, General Grant had 
given me a pass of the broadest character, to go any- 
where in the Union lines. 

The news of the fall of Richmond reached Galena 
at eleven o'clock Monday morning, April 3, 1865. 
I took the train "for the front" at five p.m., and 
arrived in Washington Thursday morning, April 
6th. I found that the President, Mrs. Lincoln, and 
a party of friends had left on an excursion for Fort- 
ress Monroe, City Point, and Richmond. Mr. Blaine 
joined me, and we made the trip together to 
City Point. On arriving there, late Friday after- 
noon, we found the President and party had returned 
from Richmond, and were on their steamer, the 
River Queen, which was to remain at City Point 
over night. In the evening Mr. Blaine and myself 
went on board the steamer to pay our respects to 
the President. I never passed a more delightful 
evening. Mr. Lincoln was in perfect health and in 
exuberant spirits. His relation of his experiences 



L20 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and of all he saw at Richmond had all of that quaint- 
ness and originality for which he was distinguished. 
Full of anecdote and reminiscence, he never flagged 
during the whole evening. His son Robert was in 
the military service and with the advancing army, 
and knowing that I was bound for the " front " the 
next morning, he said to me : 

" I believe I will drop Robert a line if you will 
take it. I will hand it to you in the morning before 
you start." 

I went to the wharf the next morning, and soon 
Mr. Lincoln came ashore from his steamer, with the 
letter in his hand. He was erect and buoyant, and 
it seemed to me that I had never seen him look so 
great and grand. After a few words of conversation, 
he handed me the letter, and I bid him what proved 
to be, alas ! 2i final adieu. I made my way with all 
diligence and through much tribulation to the 
" front," and arrived at Appomattox in season to see 
the final surrender of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, and General Lee and his associate generals 
prisoners of war. 

Returning to City Point, I found awaiting me 
there a small Government steamer which was to take 
me to Washington. On arriving there I met the 
most terrible news that had ever shocked the civilized 
world : Mr. Lincoln had been assassinated. That was 
Saturday night, April 15, 1865. I gave directions 



POLITICAL LIFE IN ILLINOIS 12 1 

to have the steamer proceed directly to Washington, 
where I arrived early Monday morning, April 17th, 
and in season to participate in the stupendous prep- 
arations to do honor to the memory of the dead 
President. 

I was on the Congressional Committee to escort 
his remains to Springfield, Illinois, where I followed 
his colossal hearse to the grave. 

E. B. WASHBURNE. 



IV 

LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR 

IN the summer of 1854 I became a citizen of De 
Witt County, Illinois, having emigrated from 
Ohio for the purpose of practicing law. At that time 
I knew something of Mr. Lincoln's history, having 
known of him while he was a member of Congress 
a few years before. I found he had a very strong 
hold upon popular affection, and stood high in the 
confidence of the people of the State. He was the 
leader of the bar, Judge Logan having substan- 
tially retired from the active practice ; and although 
he was but forty-five, he was alluded to in popular 
parlance as " old Mr. Lincoln ; " and in that con- 
nection I recall an incident occurring while he was a 
candidate for the Senate against Judge Douglas in 
1858. He delivered a speech at Clinton, and as we 
were riding in the " inevitable procession " of Amer- 
ican politics, the "small boy" of the period said to 
one of his companions : " There! there goes old Mr. 
Lincoln!" This was said in a tone to be heard by 
the immediate company, and Mr. Lincoln was asked 
how long they had been calling him old. Said he : 



124 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



" Oh, they have been at that trick many years. 
They commenced it when I was scarcely thirty." 

It seemed to amuse him ; he was not old enough 
to be sensitive about his age. 

The first time I met him was in September, 1854, 
at Bloomington ; and I was introduced to him by 
Judge Douglas, who was then making a campaign 
in defense of the Kansas- Nebraska bill. Mr. Lin- 
coln was attending court, and called to see the 
Judge. They talked very pleasantly about old times 
and things, and during the conversation the Judge 
broadened the hospitalities of the occasion by asking 
him to drink something. Mr. Lincoln declined very 
politely, when the Judge said : " Why, do you be- 
long to the temperance society ?" He said : 

" I do not in theory, but I do in fact, belong to 
the temperance society, in this, to wit, that I do not 
drink anything, and have not done so for a very 
many years." 

Shortly after he retired, Mr. J. W. Fell, then and 
now a leading citizen of Illinois, came into the 
room, with a proposition that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
Douglas have a discussion, remarking that there 
were a great many people in the city, that the ques- 
tion was of great public importance, and that it 
would afford the crowd the luxury of listening to the 
acknowledged champions of both sides. As soon as 
the proposition was made it could be seen that the 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR 1 25 

Judge was irritated. He inquired of Mr. Fell, with 
some majesty of manner: "Whom does Mr. Lin- 
coln represent in this campaign — is he an Abolition- 
ist or an Old Line Whig ? " 

Mr. Fell replied that he was an Old Line Whig. 

" Yes," said Douglas, " I am now in the region 
of the Old Line Whig. When I am in Northern 
Illinois I am assailed by an Abolitionist, when I get 
to the center I am attacked by an Old Line Whig, 
and when I go to Southern Illinois I am beset by an 
Anti-Nebraska Democrat. I can't hold the Whig 
responsible for anything the Abolitionist says, and 
can't hold the Anti-Nebraska Democrat responsible 
for the positions of either. It looks to me like dog- 
ging a man all over the State. If Mr. Lincoln wants 
to make a speech he had better get a crowd of his 
own ; for I most respectfully decline to hold a dis- 
cussion with him." 

Mr. Lincoln had nothing to do with the challenge 
except perhaps to say he would discuss the question 
with Judge Douglas. He was not aggressive in the 
defense of his doctrines or enunciation of his opin- 
ions, but he was brave and fearless in the protection 
of what he believed to be the right. The impression 
he made when I was introduced was as to his unaf- 
fected and sincere manner, and the precise, cautious, 
and accurate mode in which he stated his thoughts 
even when talking about commonplace things. 



126 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

In 1854 and down to the commencement of the 
war the circuit practice in IlHnois was still in vogue, 
and the itinerant lawyer was as sure to come as the 
trees to bud or the leaves to fall. In and amonof 
these Mr. Lincoln was the star ; he stood above and 
beyond them all. He traveled the circuit attending 
the courts of Judge David Davis's district, extend- 
ing from the center to the eastern boundary of the 
State, until he was nominated for the Presidency. 
He liked the atmosphere of a court-house, and 
seemed to be contented and happy when Judge 
Davis was on the bench and he had before him the 
" twelve good and lawful men " who had been called 
from the body of the county to " well and truly try 
the issue." In every county in which he practiced 
he was among his friends and acquaintances ; he 
usually knew the most, and always the leading men 
on the jury. He was not what might be called an 
industrious lawyer, and when his adversary presented 
a reasonably good affidavit for a continuance, he was 
willing that the case should go over until the next 
term. He was particularly kind to young lawyers, 
and I remember with what confidence I always went 
to him, because I was certain that he knew all about 
the matter, and would most cheerfully tell me. I 
can see him now through the decaying memories of 
thirty years, standing in the corner of the old court- 
room, and as I approached him with a paper I did 
not understand, he said: 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR I27 

"Wait until I fix this plug for my 'gallis,' and I 
will pitch into that like a dog at a root." 

While speaking, he was busily engaged in trying 
to connect his suspender with his pants by making a 
" plug " perform the function of a button. Mr. Lin- 
coln used old-fashioned words, and never failed to 
use them if they could be sustained as proper. He 
was probably taught to say "gallows," and he never 
adopted the modern "suspender." 

In the convulsions of nations, how rapidly history 
makes itself ! Mr. Lincoln was the attorney of the 
Illinois Central Railroad Company, to assist the 
local counsel in the different counties of the circuit, 
and in De Witt County, in connection with the Hon. 
C. H. Moore, attended to the litigation of the com- 
pany. In '58 or '59 he appeared in a case which 
they did not want to try at that term, and Mr. Lin- 
coln remarked to the court : 

" We are not ready for trial." 

Judge Davis said : " Why is not the company 
ready to go to trial ?" 

Mr. Lincoln replied : " We are embarrassed by 
the absence or rather want of information from Cap- 
tain McClellan." 

The Judge said : " Who is Captain McClellan, 
and why is he not here ? " 

Mr. Lincoln said : " All I know of him is that he 
is the engineer of the railroad, and why he is not 
here this deponent saith not," 



128 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

In consequence of the absence of Captain McClel- 
lan the case was continued. Lincoln and McClellan 
had perhaps never met up to that time, and the 
most they knew of each other was that one was the 
attorney and the other the engineer of the Illinois 
Central Railroad Company. In less than two years 
from that time the fame of both had spread as broad 
as civilization, and each held in his grasp the fate of 
a nation. The lawyer was directing councils and 
cabinets, and the engineer, in subordination to the 
lawyer as commander-in-chief, was directing armies 
greater and grander than the combined forces of 
Wellington and Napoleon at Waterloo. 

Mr. Lincoln did not make a specialty of criminal 
cases, but was engaged frequently in them. He 
could not be called a great lawyer, measured by the 
extent of his acquirement of legal knowledge ; he 
was not an encyclopedia of cases, but in the text- 
books of the profession and in the clear perception 
of legal principles, with natural capacity to apply 
them, he had great ability. He was not a case law- 
yer, but a lawyer who dealt in the deep philosophy 
of the law. He always knew the cases which might 
be quoted as absolute authority, but beyond that he 
contented himself in the application and discussion 
of general principles. In the trial of a case he 
moved cautiously, and never examined, or cross- 
examined a witness to the detriment of his side. 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR 1 29 

If the witness told the truth he was safe from his 
attacks, but woe betide the unlucky and dishonest 
individual who suppressed the truth, or colored it 
against Mr. Lincoln's side. His speeches to the 
jury were very effective specimens of forensic ora- 
tory. He talked the vocabulary of the people, and 
the jury understood every point he made and every 
thought he uttered. I never saw him when I thought 
he was trying to make a display for mere display; 
but his imagination was simple and pure in the 
richest gems of true eloquence. He constructed 
short sentences of small words, and never wearied 
the mind of the jury by mazes of elaboration. 

The Kansas-Nebraska bill having been passed in 
May, 1854, great political excitement prevailed in 
Illinois because of the connection of Senator Doue- 
las with that measure. Mr, Douglas and Mr. 
Lincoln had been political antagonists as Whigs 
and Democrats, and when the Republican Party 
was formed in 1854 that antagonism continued, Mr. 
Douglas adhering to the Democratic Party and 
Mr. Lincoln becoming the leader of the Republican 
Party in Illinois. In 1858, during the campaign 
preceding the election of Senator, Mr. Lincoln made 
a speech at Springfield, on the 1 7th of June, in which 
he charged a purpose on the part of Mr. Douglas, 
Mr. Buchanan, and Judge Taney to nationalize 
slavery. That speech is one of the most remarkable 



130 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that he ever delivered, and the one in which he 
used the expression, " a house divided against itself 
cannot stand." Mr. Douglas came to Illinois upon 
the adjournment of the Senate and made a speech in 
Chicago, in which he did not take occasion to con- 
tradict the charge made in Mr. Lincoln's Springfield 
speech. Mr. Lincoln then made another speech at 
Springfield, in which he noticed the fact that he 
made the charge referred to on the 17th of June; 
that Mr. Douglas had since then made a speech 
in Chicago, and did not deny it ; and, said he, in his 
second Springfield speech : " I am entitled to what 
the lawyers call a default, and I here take the default 
on him on that charge, he having refused and failed 
to answer." 

Some time in the latter part of July Mr. Douglas 
began his regular campaign in De Witt, that being a 
strong Buchanan county, Colonel Thomas Snell 
having organized the Danite party there in opposi- 
tion to Mr. Douglas. We wrote Mr. Lincoln that, 
inasmuch as Mr. Douo^las was to begfin his resfular 
campaign there, he had better come and hear him ; 
and on the morning of the day the meeting was held 
Mr. Lincoln came to Clinton. There was an immense 
crowd for a country town, and the people were very 
much excited upon the subject of politics. 

On the way to the grove, Mr. Lincoln said : " I 
have challenged Judge Douglas for a discussion ; 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR I3I 

what do you think of it ? " I said : " The question 
is already settled ; but I approve your judgment in 
whatever you may do." Mr. Douglas spoke to an 
immense audience, and made one of the most forcible 
political speeches I ever heard. He spoke over three 
hours, in the course of which he took occasion to 
reply to Mr. Lincoln's Springfield speech, with ref- 
erence to the " default " which he said Mr. Lincoln 
in his second speech had sought to make against 
him. As he progressed in his argument he became 
very personal, and I said to Mr. Lincoln : " Do you 
suppose Douglas knows you are here ? " 

"Well," said he, "I don't know whether he does 
or not, he has not looked around in this direction ; 
but I reckon the boys have told him I am here." 

When Judge Douglas finished there was a great 
shout for Mr. Lincoln. He stepped on the seat very 
much excited, and said : 

" This is Judge Douglas's meeting. I have no 
right and therefore no disposition to interfere, but 
if you ladies and gentlemen desire to hear what I 
have to say on these questions, and will meet me to- 
night at the Court-house yard, / will try and answer 
the gentleman." 

Mr. Douglas was in the act of putting on his 
cravat, and turned in the direction of Mr. Lincoln. 
Both became poised in a tableau of majestic power. 
The scene exhibited a meeting of giants — a contest 



132 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



of great men — and the situation was dramatic in the 
extreme. 

Lincoln made a speech that night which in volume 
and force did not equal the speech of Judge Doug- 
las ; but for sound and cogent argument it was 
superior. Negro equality was then the bugbear of 
politics, and the Republican Party was defending it- 
self against these slanderous charges of the Democ- 
racy. Mr. Lincoln said in his speech : 

"Judge Douglas charges me with being in favor 
of negro equality, and to the extent that he charges I 
am not guilty. / am guilty of hating servitude and 
loving freedom ; and while I would not carry the 
equality of the races to the extent charged by my ad- 
versary, I am happy to confess before you that in 
some things the black man is the equal of the white 
man. In the right to eat the bread his own hands 
have earned he is the equal of Judge Douglas or 
any other living man." 

When he spoke the last sentence he had stretched 
himself to his full height, and as he reached his hands 
toward the stars of that still night, then and there 
fell from his lips one of the grandest expressions of 
American statesmanship. 

After the meeting his friends congratulated him 
especially on the beauty of the thought in the last 
sentence of the quotation. 

He said : " Do you think th^t is fine?" and when 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR 1^3 

assured that it was, he laughingly said : " If you think 
so, I will get that off again." Mr. Douglas, having 
received a challenge from Mr. Lincoln, replied to him 
in a few days, and the memorable discussion was the 
result. 

Mr. Lincoln's resources as a story-teller were in- 
exhaustible, and no condition could arise in a case 
beyond his capacity to furnish an illustration with an 
appropriate anecdote. Judge Davis was always will- 
ing that he should tell a story in court, even if the 
gravity of the situation was for the time being sus- 
pended, and no one enjoyed the mirth of the occasion 
more than his honor on the bench ; but while that 
was true, the distinguished barrister was always def- 
erential and respectful toward the court, and never 
forgot the professional amenities of the bar. 

In the debate with Judge Douglas "he builded 
better than he knew." He was preparing, as he 
thought, a stepping-stone to the Senate, but what 
was rejected then became the corner-stone in that 
fortune that raised him to the Presidency. When he 
was invited to deliver a speech at Cooper Institute, 
in February, i860, he hesitated about accepting. 
He said to his friends : " I don't know whether I 
shall be adequate to the situation ; I have never ap- 
peared before such an audience as may possibly 
assemble to hear me. I am appalled by the magni- 
tude of the undertaking." He was, however, relieved 



134 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of his fear before he went by having, as he said, 
formulated a line of thought which would prevent a 
failure. 

In May, i860, a State Convention was held at 
Decatur to appoint delegates to Chicago. Mr. Lin- 
coln was there, and at that convention the rail move- 
ment was inaugurated by Governor Oglesby. He 
had formerly lived in that county, and had worked 
on a farm with Mr. John Hanks, who was still living, 
and it occurred to the Governor, in conversation with 
Mr. Hanks, that if they could get some of the rails 
that Lincoln and Hanks split it would be a good 
thing for the campaign ; and so on the day of the 
convention Oglesby arranged that just at the close 
of the business of the convention Mr. Hanks should 
march in with one of these rails on his shoulder, 
which he did ; and as Mr. Lincoln rose to speak, his 
attention was called to the rail. He said : 

" Fellow-citizens, it is true that many, many years 
ago John Hanks and I made rails down on the 
Sangamon. We made good, big, honest rails, but 
whether that is one of the rails, I am not, at this dis- 
tant period of time, able to say." 

That inaugurated the rail movement. He closed 
his reference to the rails with a eulogy on free labor 
embracing the finest thought of his theory upon that 
subject. At that convention the question was asked 
him whether he would attend the Chicago Conven- 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR joe 

tion, and he replied : " I am a little too much of a 
candidate to go, and not quite enough of a candidate 
to stay away ; but upon the whole I believe I will 
not go." 

Mr. Lincoln took no public part in the campaign 
of i860. He attended one political meeting, but de- 
clined to speak. On the day appointed by law the 
Republican electors met at Springfield and were 
entertained at dinner by Mr. J. C. Conkling, the 
elector for that district. Mr. Lincoln was there as 
one of the guests, and talked freely but sadly as to 
the condition of things incident to his election. Gov- 
ernor Yates, who had been elected Governor, was of 
the party, and expressed to him the necessity of be- 
ing firm and determined. He replied that he hoped 
he would be adequate to the responsibility of the 
situation ; and that in his hands, as President, the 
Republic of Washington would not perish. How 
much work he did, at Springfield, in the preparation 
of his inaugural was not known by his most intimate 
friends. He may have consulted some of the mem- 
bers of his Cabinet who visited him before he left for 
Washington, but beyond them he kept his own coun- 
sel. That fact illustrates one of the distinguishing 
features of his character. As to the ordinary affairs 
of life he was indifferent — he listened to anybody; but 
when the highest and most important functions of 
duty were called into requisition he was one of the 



1^6 REMiNISCEhfCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

most self-reliant men of history. As President of the 
United States he was indifferent as to who was Min- 
ister to the Court of St. James or Postmaster at New 
York — councils and cabinets might decide such 
questions ; but when the question arose whether lib- 
erty was to be given to all, in the solitude of his un- 
measured genius the problem was solved. He was 
advised long before i860, by some of his more inti- 
mate friends, that his positions on the subject of 
slavery and human rights would be prejudicial to his 
party and to himself personally. He paid no atten- 
tion to such admonitions. The question with him 
was whether the thing was right, and not what his 
friends may have thought about the expediency of it. 

In almost all the situations of life, public or pri- 
vate, Mr. Lincoln had some anecdote to illustrate 
the situation. 

During the war there was a contest between the 
military and civil authorities as to the policy of 
bringing out cotton from a certain insurrectionary 
district. The civil authorities having granted per- 
mission to do so were in favor of bringing it out, 
and the military authorities in carrying out their 
belligerent operations were opposed to it. In that 
condition of things I was requested by some gentle- 
men in Washington that I find out from him what 
would be the probable result of the contest then ex- 
isting between the civil and military authorities as 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR I •? y 

to the policy of bringing cotton out of the seceded 
States. The permits that were issued by the Treas- 
ury Department were nulHfied by the military au- 
thorities, and the matter was brought before the 
President as to what should be done. After hav- 
ing talked for a considerable time with him about 
other matters, I referred to the subject, and said 
that a number of gentlemen who were then in the 
city had requested me to ask him what would proba- 
bly be the result of the contest. As soon as I made 
the inquiry a pleasant smile came over his face, the 
memory of other days was with him, and he said : 
" By the way, what has become of our friend, 
Robert Lewis?" Mr. Lewis had for a number of 
years been clerk of the Circuit Court of De Witt 
County, and was a great personal friend of Mr. Lin- 
coln's. He was a great wit, and was very much en- 
joyed in his association by Mr. Lincoln. I remarked 
to the President that Mr. Lewis was still in his old 
home, and he then said : " Do you remember a story 
that Bob used to tell us about his going to Missouri 
to look up some Mormon lands that belong to his 
father?" I said: "Mr. President, I have forgotten 
the details of that story, and I wish you would tell 
it." He then said that when Robert became of age 
he found among the papers of his father's a number 
of warrants and patents for lands in North-east Mis- 
souri, and he concluded the best thing he could do 



1^3 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

was to go to Missouri and investigate the condition 
of things. It being before the days of railroads, he 
started on horseback with a pair of old-fashioned 
saddle-bags. When he arrived where he supposed 
his land was situated, he stopped, hitched his horse, 
and went into a cabin standing close by the road- 
side. He found the proprietor, a lean, lanky, leath- 
ery-looking man, engaged in the pioneer business of 
making bullets preparatory to a hunt. Mr. Lewis 
observed, on entering, a rifle suspended on a couple 
of buck horns above the fire. He said to the man : 
"I am looking up some lands that I think belong to 
my father," and inquired of the man in what section 
he lived. Without having ascertained the section, 
Mr. Lewis proceeded to exhibit his title papers in 
evidence, and having established a good title as he 
thought, said to the man : " Now, that is my title, 
what is yours?" The pioneer, who had by this 
time become somewhat interested in the proceed- 
ing, pointed his long finger toward the rifle, and 
said : " Young man, do you see that gun ? " Mr. 
Lewis frankly admitted that he did. " Well," said 
he, " that is my title, and if you don't get out of 
here pretty damned quick you will feel the force of 
it." Mr. Lewis very hurriedly put his title papers 
in his saddle-bags, mounted his pony, and galloped 
down the road, and, as Bob says, the old pioneer 
snapped his gun twice at him before he could turn 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR 



139 



the corner. Lewis said that he had never been back 
to disturb that man's title since. " Now," said Mr. 
Lincoln, the " military authorities have the same 
title against the civil authorities that closed out 
Bob's Mormon title in Missouri. You may judge 
what may be the result in this case." 

When I returned to the hotel I told the story to 
the anxious cotton speculators, and they all under- 
stood what would be the policy of the administra- 
tion as well as if a proclamation had been issued. 
Mr. Lincoln was not in the habit of injecting his 
stories into an occasion, but told them as they were 
suggested by the incident of the conversation ; and 
the happy faculty of always being ready with one 
assisted and relieved him in the discharge of duties, 
from the humblest walks of life to the complex 
and complicated responsibilities of President of the 
United States. 

With all the jollity of his every-day life, in all but 
the surface indications of his character, he was sad 
and serious. The poem which he so often quoted, 
"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" 
was a reflex in poetic form of the deep melancholy 
of his soul. I have heard him, as he sat by the de- 
caying embers of an old-fashioned fire-place, when 
the day's merriment and business were over and the 
night's stillness had assumed dominion, quote at 
length his favorite poem. 



I40 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Another story is told illustrative of Mr. Lincoln's 
ability to relieve the embarrassment of his situation 
as President by a master-stroke of wit. In 1862 the 
people of New York City were apprehensive of a 
bombardment by some of the Confederate cruisers ; 
public meetings were held to express the gravity of 
the situation, and to induce the Government to do 
something by way of permanently protecting the 
city. In consummation of that purpose a delegation 
of fifty gentlemen, representing in their own right 
$100,000,000, was selected to visit Washington and 
have an interview with the President, and induce 
him to detail a gun-boat to protect the city. The 
committee requested a gentleman then staying at 
Washington to arrange with the President a time 
when he could see them. Mr. Lincoln seemed to 
be much puzzled what to say or do, and remarked 
to the gentleman who was arranging as to the inter- 
view : 

" I have no gun-boats or ships of war that can 
be spared from active service ; but, inasmuch as they 
have come to see me, I shall have to see them and 
get along as best I can." 

The committee called at the appointed time, and 
were introduced as gentlemen "representing $100,- 
000,000 in their own right." The chairman of the 
delegation made a very earnest appeal to the Presi- 
dent for protection, and remarked that they repre- 



LEADER OF THE ILLINOIS BAR I4I 

sented the wealth of the city — "one hundred mil- 
lions in their own right." Mr. Lincoln heard them 
attentively, evidently impressed with the " hundred 
millions," and replied as follows : 

" Gentlemen, I am, by the Constitution, commander- 
in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, 
and, as a matter of law, I can order anything done 
that is practicable to be done ; but, as a matter of fact, 
I am not in command of the gun-boats or ships of 
war — as a matter of fact, I do not know exactly where 
they are, but presume they are actively engaged. 
It is impossible for me, in the condition of things, to 
furnish you a gun-boat. The credit of the Govern- 
ment is at a very low ebb. Greenbacks are not 
worth more than 40 or 50 cents on the dollar, and in 
this condition of things, if I was worth half as much 
as you gentlemen are represented to be, and as badly 
frightened as you seem to be, I would build a gun- 
boat and give it to the Government." 

The gentleman who accompanied the delegation 
says he never saw one hundred millions sink to such 
insignificant proportions as It did when that commit- 
tee recrossed the threshold of the White House, 
sadder but wiser men. They had learned that money 
as well as muscle was a factor of war. 

LAWRENCE WELDON. 



V 

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS 
DEBATES AND THE GETTYSBURG ORATION 

THE history of Mr. Lincoln's life is an exceed- 
ingly interesting one — more interesting in many 
respects than that of any other man which our coun- 
try has produced. 

Of humble parentage, without opportunities for 
mental culture in early life, he became an able lawyer, 
a forcible writer, a captivating and instructive speaker, 
an executive officer of singular foresight and wisdom 
in the most trying period of our nation's history. 
Before his joint debate with Mr. Douglas in 1858, he 
was little known outside of his own State. The 
ability which he displayed in that debate gave him a 
national reputation. He and Mr. Douglas were the 
rival candidates for a seat in the United States Sen- 
ate, of which Mr. Douglas was a prominent member, 
but whose term of office was about to expire. They 
had frequently met as opposing counsel in important 
suits. They were therefore well known to each 
other, and by their public speeches they were well 
known to the people of Illinois. They had, in one or 
two instances, addressed the same audiences upon po- 



144 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lltical subjects, but they had never met by agreement, 
at that time a common occurrence in the West, in 
public debate. The question which then was excit- 
ing the greatest interest throughout the Union was 
slavery — not (with the exception of a comparatively 
few ultra-antislavery men in the Northern States) 
whether it should be abolished in the States where it 
existed, but whether it should be extended into the 
Territories. 

Mr. Douglas, as a United States Senator, had been 
largely instrumental in effecting a repeal of the com- 
promise by w^hich Missouri had been admitted into 
the Union and the extension of slavery into other 
Territories prohibited. He was the leading advocate, 
in fact the father, of the doctrine of popular sover- 
eignty — the right of the people of the Territories, 
in preparing constitutions for admission into the 
Union as sovereign States, to determine for them- 
selves whether they should be slave States or free. 

Mr. Lincoln, although a hater of slavery, was not 
an Abolitionist. He had a profound reverence for 
the Constitution upon which the Union was founded, 
which recognized slavery as a local institution, but 
he was firm and unyielding in his opposition to its 
extension. 

Thus they stood before the people of Illinois the 
acknowledged representatives of their respective 
parties — one, the advocate of the nationalization of 



THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 145 

slavery ; the other, the advocate of freedom for all, 
and everywhere except in those States in which slav- 
ery had a constitutional existence. Neither was an 
extremist ; neither was the exponent of ultra doc- 
trines on either side. Mr. Lincoln did not go far 
enough, in merely opposing the extension of slavery, 
to satisfy the Abolitionists of the North, who demand- 
ed the extirpation of slavery, root and branch, with- 
out regfard to the sanctions of the Constitution. Mr. 
Douglas, who was neither an advocate nor an oppo- 
nent of slavery, did not go far enough to satisfy the 
pro-slavery leaders of the South, who contended for 
the right of slave-holders to take their slaves into the 
Territories and hold them there, in perpetual servi- 
tude, regardless of what he called popular, and they 
denounced as squatter, sovereignty. While, there- 
fore, neither of them came up to the high standard 
of either Abolitionists on the one hand or pro-slavery 
men on the other, the difference between them was 
decided and irreconcilable ; and in order that the dif- 
ference might be fairly and thoroughly discussed 
before the same audiences, Mr. Lincoln invited Mr. 
Douglas to meet him in a joint debate in some of 
the most populous counties of the State. The invi- 
tation was promptly accepted. The debate began on 
the 2 1 St of August and closed on the 15th of Octo- 
ber. They spoke in the open air, and their speeches 
were listened to with the deepest interest by the 



1^5 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

many thousands who thronged to hear them. They 
were fully and carefully reported, and were published 
in the leading journals North and South. No speeches 
ever made in the United States commanded so great 
attention or made so deep an impression upon the 
public mind. It was, indeed, the opening of the " irre- 
pressible conflict " which Mr. Seward had predicted. 

Mr. Lincoln, in a speech which he made a short 
time before, had avowed the sentiment that the 
United States could not permanently continue to be 
" part slave and part free ; " that freedom or slavery 
sooner or later must become dominant in all the 
States ; that slavery was local ; that there was no 
warrant under the Constitution for its extension ; and 
that its extension could rightfully be prevented by 
Congress. On the contrary, Mr. Douglas was com- 
mitted to the doctrine that slavery was nationalized 
by the Constitution ; that Congress had no authority 
to prevent its introduction to the Territories ; that 
the people of each Territory and each State could 
alone decide whether they should be slave States or 
free. In a word, he was committed to the doctrine 
of popular sovereignty in its widest sense. 

This really was the question to be discussed, but 
the discussion was not confined to it. In the course 
of the debate, slavery, its inhumanity, its influence 
upon the white population, its inconsistency with 
republicanism, were freely considered. 



! 



THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 



147 



At the beginning of the debate the advantages 
seemed to be on the side of Mr. Douglas. The anti- 
slavery sentiment had not taken root in Illinois. 
Washed by the Ohio on the south, and the Wabash 
on the west, by which the largest part of her surplus 
productions were sent to the Southern markets, her 
pecuniary interests bound her to the South. From 
■ her earliest settlement the slave-owners had been 
her best, almost her only reliable customers. Nor 
was this all. Illinois had been largely settled by 
immigrants from the slave States, so that she was 
connected with the South by social as well as pecun- 
iary ties. For more than half a century the Union 
had existed and rapidly grown in wealth and popu- 
lation, part slave and part free. Why might it not 
remain so, and still continue to thrive and prosper ? 
Besides, there was something captivating in the 
doctrine of popular sovereignty — the right of the 
people to govern themselves according to their own 
good pleasure. Nor were these the only advantages 
possessed by Mr. Douglas. He was one of the 
ablest debaters in the country. To an almost un- 
limited command of language were added audacity 
and tact, which made him a formidable opponent in 
the United States Senate, filled as the Senate then 
was with very able and accomplished men. Upon 
the stump he had no equal. His voice was sonorous 
and flexible. Thoroughly versed in the political 



148 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



history of the country — bold, dashing, self-confident, 
and self-possessed — he was one whom very few men 
would have dared to encounter in a public debate. 
All this Mr. Lincoln perfectly understood, but he 
knew himself, and he was thoroughly convinced of 
the justice of his cause. He carried his conscience 
with him into the discussion. He made no statement 
which he did not believe to be true, took no position 
which he was not able to defend. Less gifted in 
language, he was clearer in statement, more per- 
suasive and simple in style, stronger in his convic- 
tions, more earnest in presenting them, and more 
familiar with the character of those whom he was 
wont to call plain people, than his opponent. 

It can hardly be said that he was a victor in the 
debate, but it cannot be denied that when it closed 
the advantage was not on the side of Mr. Douglas. 

Like everybody else, I was greatly interested in the 
debate. Mr. Lincoln's speeches were not only very 
able, but they left the impression upon my mind that 
he possessed the elements of great personal popular- 
ity. So strong was this impression that, happening 
to be in Chicago in i860, when the Republican Con- 
vention was in session, and being asked by some of 
the delegates (when it was certain that either Mr. 
Seward or Mr. Lincoln would be nominated) to 
which I thought their votes should be given, I did not 
hesitate to say " that that depended upon what they 



THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 1 49 

Wanted to do — if they wanted to vindicate the prin- 
ciples of the party, they should vote for Mr. Seward ; 
if they wanted to elect a President, they should vote 
for Mr. Lincoln." Mr. Seward had rendered great 
service to his party, of which he stood at the head ; 
his ability was undoubted, and he was the decided 
choice of the delegates from the Eastern States, but 
I doubted that enough of the Western States could 
be carried to secure his election. 

Mr. Lincoln's election precipitated the rebellion, 
but the time had come, sooner than had been ex- 
pected and in a different way, for the settlement of 
the question whether the United States were a Na- 
tion, to which allegiance was due by the people, or 
a confederation of States, from which any State or 
number of States might withdraw by their own in- 
dependent action ; and of the equally important 
question whether slavery or freedom should dom- 
inate throughout the Union. These questions were 
settled by war, and it is now quite certain that they 
could not have been settled by any other means. 
The cost of this settlement in treasure and blood 
was enormous, but it was incomparably less than 
would have been the evils which would have re- 
sulted from the nationalization of slavery or the per- 
petual strife which must have occurred between the 
sections if the Union had been disrupted. That the 
election of Mr. Lincoln was fortunate for the coun- 



J CO REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

try, and the whole country, is generally admitted. 
It would have been quite impossible for either of the 
other distinguished men whose names were before 
the convention for nomination for the Presidency to 
have retained the confidence of the people through 
the protracted struggle to the same extent that he 
did. 

Mr. Lincoln's character it is difficult to analyze, so 
rare and seemingly incongruous were its combina- 
tions. Instead, therefore, of attempting an analysis, 
I must confine my remarks to a description of his 
appearance, and of his prominent and singular, if 
not inconsistent, characteristics. 

In form, Mr. Lincoln was tall and angular, lacking 
in compactness, but strong and sturdy, with great 
capacity for work and power of endurance. His 
features were coarse, and to strangers uncomely, 
but prepossessing to those who became his friends. 
His face, dull and heavy when in repose, was all 
alight with intelligence when in conversation. " I 
thought," said a lady, " when I first saw him that he 
was one of the usfliest of men. Now that I know 
him well, he seems to me to be perfectly charming." 
Grave and sedate in manner, he was full of kind and 
gentle emotions. He was fond of poetry. Shake- 
speare was his delight. Few men could read with 
equal expression the plays of the great dramatist. 

The theater had great attractions for him, but it 



THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 151 

was comedy, not tragedy, he went to hear. He had 
great enjoyment of the plays that made him laugh, 
no matter how absurd and grotesque, and he gave 
expression to his enjoyment by hearty and noisy 
applause. He was a man of strong religious con- 
victions, but he cared nothing for the dogmas of 
the churches, and had little respect for their creeds. 
As a lawyer and advocate, Mr. Lincoln had no su- 
perior in Illinois and few superiors in the older 
States. His practice was not broad or varied 
enough to require constant study of authorities, 
but his mind was keen, clear, discriminating, and 
he was well grounded in the elementary principles 
of the law. His arguments before the court were 
always carefully prepared, pointed, and cogent. Be- 
fore a jury he was especially effective. One of his 
most distinguished characteristics as an advocate 
was the suppression of himself in his arguments to 
the jurors. It was his aim to fix the facts, and the 
facts only, upon their minds. Comprehending per- 
fectly the points upon which the case depended, 
to them he directed the attention of the jury, wast- 
ing no words upon unimportant matters ; never 
wearisome by long speeclies, with great aptitude 
discovering the characters of jurors, always intel- 
ligible and earnest, he never failed to interest and 
rarely to convince. The same qualities were dis- 
played in his public speeches — models they were 



1^2 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of clear, simple, and consequently of forcible speak- 
ing. 

The first time I saw and heard him was at Indian- 
apolis, shortly after the conclusion of his debate with 
Mr. Douglas. Careless of his attire, ungraceful in 
his movements, I thought as he came forward to 
address the audience that his was the most ungainly 
figure I had ever seen upon a platform. Could this 
be Abraham Lincoln whose speeches I had read 
with so much interest and admiration — this plain, 
dull-looking man the one who had successfully 
encountered in debate one of the most gifted 
speakers of his time? The question was speedily 
answered by the speech. The subject was slavery — 
its character, its incompatibility with Republican in- 
stitutions, its demoralizing influences upon society, 
its aggressiveness, its rights as limited by the Consti- 
tution ; all of which were discussed with such clear- 
ness, simplicity, earnestness, and force as to carry me 
with him to the conclusion that the country could 
not long continue part slave and part free — that 
freedom must prevail throughout the length and 
breadth of the land, or that the great Republic, in- 
stead of being the home of the free and the hope of 
the oppressed, would become a by-word and a re- 
proach among the nations. 

Mr. Lincoln was not a polished writer, but he 
wrote correctly and with great precision. In clearness 



THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 



153 



of expression, in conciseness, in the use of apt and 
appropriate language, which everybody could un- 
derstand, it would be difficult to find his superior. 
His letters in explanation and defense of his hesita- 
tion to proclaim freedom to the slaves, especially his 
reply to Mr. Greeley, are masterpieces of clear and 
forcible writing. The concluding paragraph of his 
first inaugural — "The mystic chords of memory, 
stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave 
to every living heart and hearth-stone all over this 
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, 
when again touched, as surely they will be, by the 
better angels of our nature " — is as happy in expres- 
sion as it is touching and beautiful in thought. 

Mr. Lincoln was not an orator, and yet where in 
the English language can be found eloquence of 
higher tone or more magnetic power than was ex- 
hibited in his little speech at the consecration of the 
battle-field cemetery near Gettysburg ? — 

" Four-score and seven years ago, our fathers 
brought forth on this continent a new nation, con- 
ceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 
that all men are created equal. Now we are en- 
gaged in a great civil war, testing whether that na- 
tion, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, 
can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field 
of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of 
that field as a final resting-place for those who here 



jCA REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

gave their lives that that nation might live. It is 
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

" But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we 
cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. 
The brave men who struggled here have consecrated 
it far above our poor power to add or detract. The 
world will little note nor long remember what we 
say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here 
to the unfinished work which they who fought here 
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is, rather, for us 
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining be- 
fore us, that from these honored dead we take in- 
creased devotion to that cause for which they gave 
the last full measure of devotion ; that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died 
in vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have a 
new birth of freedom ; and that government of the 
people, by the people, for the people, shall not per- 
ish from the earth." 

He followed Edward Everett, whose speech was 
worthy of his reputation as one of the most accom- 
plished orators of the age, and when he concluded, 
it is said that Mr. Everett, taking Mr. Lincoln's hand, 
remarked : " My speech will soon be forgotten ; 
yours never will be. How gladly would 1 exchange .l 
my hundred pages for your twenty lines ! " 

Mr. Lincoln excelled as a story-teller. The habit 



THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 



155 



of Story-telling was formed in his early professional 
life, when in company with a few other prominent 
members of the bar, he visited counties, at long dis- 
tances from his own, to try important cases. The 
journeys from county to county were long and pro- 
tracted, and as there were no newspapers nor books 
in the cabins where they spent the nights, these 
lawyer circuit-riders, as they were called, killed the 
time, as the saying was, by telling stories, in which 
invention as well as memory was brought into play. 
In inventing stories and skill in telling them Mr. 
Lincoln was the acknowledged leader. The habit 
of story-telling, thus formed, became part of his nat- 
ure, and he gave free rein to it, even when the fate 
of the nation seemed to be trembling in the balance. 
Some eight or ten days after the first battle of 
Bull Run, when Washington was utterly demoralized 
by its result, I called upon him at the White House, 
in company with a few friends, and was amazed 
when, referring to something which had been said 
by one of the company about the battle which was 
so disastrous to the Union forces, he remarked, in his 
usual quiet manner, " That reminds me of a story," 
which he told in a manner so humorous as to indi- 
cate that he was free from care and apprehension. 
This to me was surprising. I could not then un- 
derstand how the President could feel like telling a 
story when Washington was in danger of being capt- 



1^6' REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ured, and the whole North was dismayed ; and I left 
the White House with the feeling that I had been 
mistaken in Mr. Lincoln's character, and that his 
election might prove to have been a fatal mistake. 
This feeling was changed from day to day as the 
war went on ; but it was not entirely overcome until 
I went to Washington in the spring of 1863, and as 
an officer of the government was permitted to have 
free intercourse with him. I then perceived that 
my estimate of him before his election was well 
grounded, and that he possessed even higher qual- 
ities than I had given him credit for ; that he was a 
man of sound judgment, great singleness and te- 
nacity of purpose, and extraordinary sagacity ; that 
story-telling was to him a safety-valve, and that he 
indulged in it, not only for the pleasure it afforded 
him, but for a temporary relief from oppressing 
cares ; that the habit had been so cultivated that he 
could make a story illustrate a sentiment and give 
point to an argument. Many of his stories were as 
apt and instructive as the best of ^sop's fables. 
All of his stories, however, were not of this char- 
acter. Next to the theater he liked to tell stories 
and to listen to them. The evening of the day 
on which the reports of Sheridan's great victory 
in the Valley of Virginia were received I spent 
with him, in company with Mr. Randall, Postmas- 
ter-General, and a few of Mr. Lincoln's personal 



THE LINCOLN -DOUG LAS DEBATES I57 

friends, at the Soldiers' Home. Mr. Lincoln was in 
the best of spirits, and Randall was also a good 
story-teller. For two hours there was a constant 
run of story-telling — Lincoln leading and Randall 
following — a contest between them as to which 
should tell the best story and provoke the heartiest 
laughter. The stories were not such as would be 
listened to with pleasure by very refined ears, but 
they were exceedingly funny. The verdict of the 
listeners was that, while the stories were equally 
good, Mr. Lincoln had displayed the most humor 
and skill. 

Mr. Lincoln was severely denounced not only by 
the out-and-out Abolitionists, but by men less pro- 
nounced in their antislavery views, such as Mr. 
Wade and Mr. Greeley, for his delay in emancipat- 
ing the slaves, under his war power, as it was called. 
This delay was caused by his doubts as to whether 
the public sentiment of the North, with which he 
always kept abreast, was prepared for a measure 
so momentous and far-reaching ; by his profound 
respect for the Constitution which he had sworn to 
maintain ; and especially by his fears that emancipa- 
tion would retard, if it did not prevent, the restora- 
tion of the Union. In his letter to Mr. Greeley, on 
the 22d of August, 1862, he said : 

"My paramount object is to save the Union, and 
not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could 



J eg REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would 
do it ; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I 
would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing some 
and leaving others alone, T would do it." 

It must be admitted that this language was hardly 
consistent with the opinion he had so frequently ex- 
pressed before his election, that the United States 
could not continue to be part slave, part free, or with 
his well-known abhorrence of slavery ; but it was in 
perfect harmony with his utterances after he became 
President, and with the avowed purpose of the gov- 
ernment in prosecuting the war. He did, however, 
subject himself to the charge of inconsistency, by 
exempting from the operation of his proclamation 
West Virginia and such parts of the other Southern 
States as were in the possession of the Federal 
forces ; by proclaiming freedom to the slave where 
his authority could not be exercised, and leaving, 
where it was felt and acknowledged, many thousands 
in bondage. Nothing was or could be gained by not 
including all slaves in his proclamation of freedom, 
and his failure to do it greatly prejudiced the Union 
cause in Great Britain and other European states. 
The right to confiscate the property that could be 
reached In the South was unquestionable ; his right 
to liberate the slaves, which was one form of confis- 
cation, where the Confederate authority was domi- 
nant, was at least doubtful. Fortunately for the 



THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES JCQ 

country, this was not left an open question. The 
doom of slavery in the United States was sealed by 
the amendments of the Constitution soon after the 
war was ended. 

Whether Mr. Lincoln would have been competent 
to deal with the questions which were presented 
after the war, in the reconstruction of the Southern 
States — whether he would have exhibited the quali- 
ties of a statesman — is, I know, regarded by many as 
somewhat doubtful ; but it is, I think, only fair to 
infer, from the ability which he displayed as Presi- 
dent, that he would have been equal to the new 
duties which he would have been called to perform, 
if he had completed the term for which he had been 
elected. He was well versed in constitutional law, 
his mind was well balanced, he was free from vindic- 
tiveness, and he was eminently patriotic. He would 
not have quarreled with his party, as his successor, 
Mr. Johnson, did. He had the confidence of the 
people, and could, therefore, have given direction to 
reconstructive legislation. His aim would have been 
to bring about by honorable conciliation harmonious 
relations between the sections, to secure the suprem- 
acy of the government without interference with the 
reserved rights of the States. There is nothing on 
his record to indicate that he would have favored the 
immediate and full enfranchisement of those who, 
having been always in servitude, were unfitted for 



j5o reminiscences of ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

an intelligent and independent use of the ballot. In 
the plan for the rehabilitation of the South which he 
and his Cabinet had partially agreed upon, and which 
Mr. Johnson and the same Cabinet endeavored to 
perfect and carry out, no provision was made for 
negro suffrage. This question was purposely left 
open for further consideration and for Congressional 
action, under such amendments of the Constitution 
as the changed condition of the country might ren- 
der necessary. From some of his incidental expres- 
sions, and from his well-known opinions upon the 
subject of suffrage and the States to regulate it, my 
conclusion is that he would have been disposed to 
let that question remain as it stood before the war ; 
with, however, such amendments of the Constitution 
as would have prevented any but those who were 
permitted to vote in Federal elections from being 
included in the enumeration for representatives in 
Congress, thus inducing the recent slave States, 
for the purpose of increasing their Congressional in- 
fluence and power, to give the ballot to black men as 
well as white. 

Nor would Mr. Lincoln have been vindictive 
against the masses who had been in arms against 
the government. Educated, as the people of the 
South had been, in the doctrine that the Union was 
a confederation of States, from which any State or 
number of States might withdraw when,in the opinion 



THE LINCOLS-DOUULAS UEUATES l6l 

of a majority of their citizens, it had failed to accom- 
plish the object for which it was formed, he would 
not have regarded the attempted secession as being 
treason, in the ordinary acceptation of the term ; nor 
would he have regarded as traitors any of the South- 
ern people except those who, while continuing to 
hold Federal offices and to draw their pay from the 
Federal Treasury, used the influence of their posi- 
tions to overthrow the government whose servants 
they were. For tkem he would have favored no for- 
giveness, to tketn he would have granted no pardons. 
They were guilty of treason, for which there could 
be no palliation. These, however, were compara- 
tively few. The war on the part of the South was 
revolutionary. It was not only so considered by 
other nations, but by those who administered the 
government after the war was ended. Officers of 
high standing in the Confederate army were ap- 
pointed to Federal offices by General Grant. The 
Vice-President of the Confederacy, when subse- 
quently in Congress, was treated with great respect 
by both parties. Two of the members of the pres- 
ent Cabinet, and nearly every one of the Southern 
Senators in the last and present Congress, held 
distinguished civil or military positions under the 
Confederate Government. This would not, could 
not, have been the case had they been guilty of 
treason. They were revolutionists, not traitors, and 



1 62 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as such they would have been treated by Mr. Lin- 
coln. 

Nor would Mr. Lincoln have appointed to South- 
ern offices such men as, unfortunately, were ap- 
pointed, whose chief mission seemed to have been 
to enrich themselves, overload the States with debt, 
and perpetuate the sectional discord which had al- 
ways, to some extent, existed, and which had been 
aggravated and intensified by the war. His sym- 
pathy was as broad as his patriotism. Devoted to 
the Union — not merely a geographical union, but 
a true national Union — his aim would have been 
to build up the waste places, give new life to 
Southern industry, and bind together North and 
South, the people of the country and the whole 
country, by ties of mutual respect, brotherhood and 
interest. 

In what, then, consisted Mr. Lincoln's greatness ? 
i/ Not in his legal acquirements ; not in his skill as a 

writer or effectiveness as a speaker ; not in his ex- 
ecutive ability — although in these respects he com- 
manded great respect ; but in the strength of his con- 
victions ; his unwavering adherence to the principles 
which he avowed ; his personal uprightness ; his 
sound judgment ; his knowledge of the people, 
gained rather by a study of himself than of them ; 
his love of country ; his humanity ; his sublime 
faith in Republican institutions. 



THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 163 

It was these qualities, rarely found in combina- 
tion, which made him great and fitted him for the 
high position which he filled with so much credit to 
himself and with lasting honor and benefit to the 

nation. 

HUGH Mcculloch. 



VI 

LINCOLN'S FIRST 
NOMINATION AND HIS VISIT TO RICHMOND 

I. 

THE one political convention surpassing all 
others in enthusiasm, earnestness of purpose, 
and fidelity to principle, was that of the Republican 
Party held in Chicago, May, i860. The spirit ani- 
mating it was prefigured in the erection of the "wig- 
wam," an edifice in which it was held. The conven- 
tion was the sudden bursting into flower of the 
growing spirit of the free States against the aggres- 
sions of slavery. 

The enthusiasm was stimulated by the conviction 
that through the dissensions of the Democratic 
Party the nominee of the convention would in all 
probability receive a majority of the electoral votes. 

It was the opinion of most men east of Ohio that 
Mr. Seward of New York would receive the nomi- 
nation. There were three other prominent candi- 
dates — Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Edward Bates of 
Missouri, and Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. 

Several weeks prior to the assembling of the con- 
vention, I started from Boston on a tour of obser- 



1 66 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

vation through New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, to Baltimore, attending the Whig Convention 
in that city, which nominated John Bell of Tennessee, 
and Edward Everett of Massachusetts. It was the 
last assembling of that party which had numbered 
among its leaders Daniel Webster and Henry 
Clay — the raking together the embers of a dying 
political organization, appropriately held in an old 
church from which worshipers had forever de- 
parted. Southern men controlled the convention. 
They were enthusiastic over the nomination of Bell, 
but moderate in their demonstration over Everett's 
name, although public opinion in the Northern States 
regarded Everett as by far the greater statesman 
of the two. One editor called it the " kangaroo " 
ticket, and said that its hind legs were longest. It 
was noticeable that the antagonism of the Southern 
Whigs was manifestly greater toward the " black 
Republicans " than toward either wing of the 
divided Democratic Party. 

From Baltimore I passed on to Washington, find- 
ing the name of Mr. Seward upon the lips of most 
Republicans as the probable nominee of the ap- 
proaching convention. Mr. Seward expected to be 
nominated. I recall a day in the Senate Chamber, 
and a conversation with Henry Wilson, Senator 
from Massachusetts. We were seated on a sofa, 
when Mr. Seward entered from the cloak-room. 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION 167 

" There is our future President," said Mr. Wilson 
" He will be nominated at Chicago, and elected. 
He feels it. You can see it in his bearing." 

Of the public men of the period, there was no 
keener observer than Senator Wilson — Thaddeus 
Stevens of Pennsylvania being a possible exception 
— no one whose fingers detected more closely the 
beating of the heart of the people of the Northern 
States. Mr. Wilson knew every phase of public 
sentiment in Massachusetts, comprehended New 
England far beyond any other man, but he did not 
fully comprehend the trend of thought and feeling 
in the great West — the rapid growth and change 
which was going on during those spring days in the 
Republican States beyond the Alleghanies. Had he 
seen what I saw a week later he would not have 
so readily concluded that Mr. Seward was to be the 
next President. 

My journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg suf- 
ficed to convince me that Mr. Seward would not re- 
ceive the votes of Pennsylvania in the convention. 
A quarter of a century ago there was a rivalry 
between the two States for political prestige and 
power which has disappeared with the changed con- 
dition of affairs. New York gloried in being the 
" Empire " State, while Pennsylvania plumed herself 
upon being the " keystone " which sustained the 
Republic. It was plain to me that Pennsylvanian 



l58 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Republicans had no intention of giving their votes 
to the favorite son of New York, but would with- 
hold them from any candidate till they could be 
given with decisive result. 

In Ohio I found a moderate enthusiasm for Mr. 
Chase, but I could discover no particular organiza- 
tion to promote his candidacy. Of public sentiment 
in Indiana I could form no definite opinion. There 
had been no crystallizing of sentiment other than 
that the nominee must be a Western man. 

II. 

Arriving in Chicago several days in advance of 
the assembling of the convention, I found a number 
of delegates from Missouri actively advocating the 
nomination of Mr. Bates. In no city of the Union 
had there been so rapid a development of Republi- 
can sentiment as in St. Louis. The Republicans of 
that city believed, or affected to believe, that with 
Mr. Bates they could secure the electoral vote of 
the State. 

There was but one name on the lips of the Repub- 
licans of Illinois — that of Abraham Lincoln. They 
knew him personally; had looked into his face at 
the mass meetings in the memorable contest with 
Douglas; had listened to his plain, incisive argu- 
ments, as clear and demonstrable as a proposition 
from Euclid. Outside of Illinois he was the "rail- 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION 1 69 

splitter" — a plain, ungainly man, a homespun candi- 
date, once member of Congress, but unacquainted 
with public affairs as the ruler of a nation. 

Thurlow Weed had charge of Mr. Seward's affairs, 
and employed all the means and appliances known 
to New York political managers — even to enrolling 
delegates who reported themselves from Texas. I 
discovered a band of claquers in the interest of Mr. 
Seward, who hurrahed upon the streets and in the 
convention at every mention of his name. They 
overdid their part. 

Mr. Norman B. Judd had charge of Mr. Lincoln's 
canvass, but there had been no such systematic pull- 
ing of distant wires or organization on his part. 
Nor was there need. It was manifest from the out- 
set that there was a ground-swell of public opinion, 
if I may use the term, which promised to sweep all 
before it, and which rose, like the tides of the sea, 
during the second day of the convention, brought 
into quick action by the determination to devour 
Weed's organized band. 

Arnold, in his Life of Lincohi, has narrated how 
it was done, by the employment of a Dr. Ames, who 
had a voice sufficiently powerful to be heard above 
the uproar of the lake in the wildest storm. He was 
a Democrat, but readily consented to shout for Lin- 
coln. With an organized band he was placed at one 
end of the wigwam ; another body was stationed at 



lyo REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the opposite end. Mr. Cook, of Ottawa, delegate, 
was upon the platform. Whenever he waved his 
handkerchief they were to cheer. It was that hand- 
kerchief which set the ten thousand Illinoisians in 
the wigwam wild with enthusiasm, and which nomi- 
nated Abraham Lincoln on the second ballot. 

During the convention I chanced to sit at a small 
table with Thurlow Weed, and had an excellent op- 
portunity to study his face. I doubt if during his 
long and eventful life he ever experienced a greater 
disappointment or a keener sorrow than at that mo- 
ment. I saw him press his fingers hard upon his 
eyelids to keep back the tears. His plans had all 
miscarried. It was the sinking of a great hope. 
The rail-splitter, story teller — the ungainly, unedu- 
cated practitioner of the Sangamon bar — was the 
nominee instead of the able, learned, classical, pol- 
ished senator. The mob had nominated him ! Mr. 
Weed did not comprehend that the mob in the wig- 
wam was the best possible representative of the 
rising public opinion. All this is preliminary, but 
needful to adequately set forth subsequent scenes. 

III. 

On the morning after the adjournment of the con- 
vention a single passenger car, drawn by one of the 
fastest locomotives of the Illinois Central road, 
glided out from the Grand Central depot, bearing 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION 



171 



the committee appointed by the convention to no- 
tify Mr. Lincoln of his nomination. These were 
George Ashman, president of the convention, who 
had won great respect by his ability, manifested as a 
presiding officer; Julius A. Andrews of Massachu- 
setts, in the vigor of manhood, who had electrified ^ik^« 
the convention by his eloquence and plain common 
sense ; George G. Fogg of New Hampshire, editor 
of the Independent Democrat, printed at Concord, 
who, next to John P. Hale, had been instrumental in 
making New Hampshire a Republican State, after- 
wards Minister to Switzerland ; Wm. B. Kelly of 
Pennsylvania, the veteran member of Congress, still 
representing his steadfast constituents ; Caleb Smith 
of Indiana, appointed to Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet ; 
Amos Tuck of New Hampshire, member of Con- 
gress with Mr. Lincoln; Norman B. Judd of Chi- 
cago, who had managed Mr. Lincoln's affairs, after- 
ward Minister to Berlin ; Judge Carter of Ohio (ap- 
pointed to a Washington judgeship), humorist, wit 
and off-hand speaker, who addressed the crowds at 
the railway stations, his speeches ending with the 
words, "In the race for the Presidency, the Little 
Giant (Douglas) will find that his coat-tails are too 
near the ground to beat Old Abe." It was an allu- 
sion to the difference in stature between the two 
candidates, responded to by a yell of delight on the 
part of Republicans, with groans from Democrats. 



172 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

There were in all, including correspondents, about 
thirty persons. 

The sun was setting when we reached Springfield. 
A crowd was gathering in the public square, not to 
welcome the committee but to listen to a speech 
from John A. McClelland (afterwards general), 
member of Congress from that district, in support 
of Mr. Douglas. 

It was past eight o'clock Saturday evening when 
the committee called upon Mr. Lincoln at his home 
— a plain, comfortable, two-storied house, a hallway 
in the center, a plain white paling in front. The 
arrival of the committee had awakened no enthu- 
siasm on the part of the townspeople. A dozen 
citizens eathered in the street. One of Mr. Lin- 
coin's sons was perched on the gate-post. The com- 
mittee entered the room at the left hand of the hall. 
Mr. Lincoln was standing in front of the fireplace, 
wearing a black frock-coat. He bowed, but it was 
not gracefully done. There was an evident con- 
straint and embarrassment. He stood erect, in a 
stiff and unnatural position, with downcast eyes. 
There was a diffidence like that of an ungainly 
school-boy standing alone before a critical audience. 
Mr. Ashman stated briefly the action of the conven- 
tion and the errand of the committee. Then came 
the reply, found in every "life" of Mr. Lincoln. It 
was a sympathetic voice, with an indescribable charm 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION 1 7 j 

in the tones. There was no study of inflection or 
cadence for effect, but a sincerity which won instant 
confidence. The lines upon his face, the large ears, 
sunken cheeks, enormous nose, shaggy hair, the 
deep-set eyes, sparkling with humor, and which 
seemed to be looking far away, were distinguishing 
facial marks. I do not know that any member of 
the company, other than Mr. Tuck of New Hamp- 
shire and some of the Western men, had ever 
seen him before, but there was that about him 
which commanded instant admiration. A stran- 
ger meeting him on a country road, ignorant of 
his history, would have said, " He is no ordinary 
man." 

Mr. Lincoln's reply was equally brief. With the 
utterance of the last syllable his manner instantly 
changed. A smile, like the sun shining through the 
rift of a passing cloud sweeping over the landscape, 
illuminated his face, lighting up every homely fea- 
ture, as he grasped the hand of Mr. Kelly. 

"You are a tall man, Judge. What is your 
height ? " 

•'Six feet three." 

" I beat you. I am six feet four without my high- 
heeled boots." 

" Pennsylvania bows to Illinois. I am glad that 
we have found a candidate for the Presidency whom 
we can look up to, for we have been informed that 



174 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

there were only little giants in Illinois," was Mr. 
Kelly's graceful reply. 

All embarrassment was gfone. Mr. Lincoln was 
no longer the ungainly school-boy. The unnatural 
dignity which he had assumed for the moment, as a 
barrister of the English bar assumes gown and horse- 
hair wig in court, was laid aside. Conversation 
flowed as freely and laughingly as a meadow brook. 
There was a bubbling up of quaint humor, fragrant 
with Western idiom, making the hour exceedingly 
enjoyable. 

" Mrs. Lincoln will be pleased to see you, gentle- 
men," said Mr. Lincoln. " You will find her in the 
other room. You must be thirsty after your long 
ride. You will find a pitcher of water in the library." 

I crossed the hall and entered the library. There 
were miscellaneous books on the shelves, two globes, 
celestial and terrestrial, in the corners of the room, 
a plain table with writing materials upon it, a pitcher 
of cold water, and glasses, but no wines or liquors. 
There was humor in the invitation to take a glass 
of water, which was explained to me by a citizen, 
who said that when it was known that the committee 
was coming, several citizens called upon Mr. Lincoln 
and informed him that some entertainment must be 
provided. 

"Yes, that is so. What ought to be done? Just 
let me know and I will attend to it," he said. 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION jye 

*' O, we will supply the needful liquors," said his 
friends. 

"Gentlemen," said Mr. Lincoln, " I thank you for 
your kind intentions, but must respectfully decline 
your offer. I have no liquors in my house, and 
have never been in the habit of entertaining my 
friends in that way. I cannot permit my friends to 
do for me what I will not myself do. I shall pro- 
vide cold water — nothing else." 

What Mr. Lincoln's feelings may have been over 
his nomination will never be known ; doubtless he 
was gratified, but there was no visible elation. After 
the momentarily assumed dignity he was himself 
again — plain Abraham Lincoln — man of the people. 

IV. 

I pass over a year and a half to October 21, 1861. 
I was in Washington. The Army of the Potomac 
was in camp on Arlington Heights, and at Alexan- 
dria McClellan was having his weekly reviews. 
There was much parade but no action. " All quiet 
on the Potomac," sent nightly by the correspondents 
to their papers, had become a by-word. The after- 
noon was lovely — a rare October day. I learned 
early in the day that something was going on up 
the Potomac near Edwards' Ferry, by the troops 
under General Banks. What was going on no one 
knew, even at McClellan's head-quarters. It was 



iy6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

near sunset when, accompanied by a fellow-corre- 
spondent, I went once more to ascertain what was 
taking place. We entered the anteroom and sent 
our cards to General McClellan. While waiting. 
President Lincoln came in, recognized us, reached 
out his hand, spoke of the beauty of the afternoon, 
while waiting for the return of the young lieutenant 
who had gone to announce his arrival. The lines 
were deeper in the President's face than when I saw 
him in his own home, the cheeks more sunken. 
They were lines of care and anxiety. For eighteen 
months he had borne a burden such as has fallen 
upon few men — a burden as weighty as that which 
rested upon the great law-giver of Israel. 

" Please to walk this way," said the lieutenant. 

We could hear the click of the telegraph in the 
adjoining room, and low conversation between the 
President and General McClellan, succeeded by si- 
lence, excepting the click-click of the instrument, 
which went on with its tale of disaster. 

Five minutes passed, and then Mr. Lincoln, unat- 
tended, with bowed head, and tears rolling down his 
furrowed cheeks, his face pale and wan, his heart 
heaving with emotion, passed through the room. He 
almost fell as he stepped into the street, and we 
sprang involuntarily from our seats to render assist- 
ance, but he did not fall. With both hands pressed 
upon his heart he walked down the street, not re- 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION lyj 

turning the salute of the sentinel pacing his beat be- 
fore the door. 

General McClellan came a moment later. " I 
have not much news to give you," he said. " There 
has been a movement of troops across the Poto- 
mac at Edwards' Ferry, under General Stone, and 
Colonel Baker is reported killed. That is about all 
I can give you." 

At that moment the finale of the terrible disaster 
at Ball's Bluff was going on — the retreat to the river, 
the plunge into the swirling water to escape the mur- 
derous fire flaming upon them from the rifles of the 
victorious Confederates. It was the news of the death 
of Colonel E. D. Baker which stunned President Lin- 
coln. They were old-time friends, members of the 
Sangamon bar, had ridden the circuits together, been 
opponents in debate, but friends ever. So strong was 
the friendship, that Mr. Lincoln had named his sec- 
ond son Edward Baker. Colonel Baker had suc- 
ceeded him in Congress, had emigrated to California, 
to return a Senator, to become President Lincoln's 
strong right arm, to advance at a bound to the front 
as one of the most eloquent orators of that body. 
Well do I recall his tireless activity, commanding 
presence and height, and sparkling eye. His pres- 
ence was an inspiration. Ah ! what a scene was that 
a few weeks later when President Lincoln, supported 
by Senators Trumbull and Browning of Illinois, en- 



j^.g REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tered the draped chamber to attend the funeral ob- 
sequies of his old friend ! Again the tears rolled 
down his cheeks, as he heard the words of Senator 
McDougall, recalling the by-gone scenes. Turning 
toward Lincoln, he said, " He loved freedom, Anglo- 
Saxon freedom. Many years ago I heard him, on a 
star-lit night on the plains of the far West, recite the 
Battle of Ivry. At Ball's Bluff he was Henry of 
Navarre — 

" 'And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may. 
For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray — 
Press where ye see my white plume shine amid the rank of war, 
And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre.' " 

I doubt if any other of the many tragic events of 
President Lincoln's life ever stunned him so much 
as that unheralded message which came over the 
wires while he was beside the instrument on that 
mournful day, October 21, 1861. 

V. 

I come to the spring of 1865. I had been in Sa- 
vannah, witnessed the departure of Sherman's army 
on its triumphant northern holiday march, had seen 
the old flag wave once more over Sumter, had 
heard the colored troops march through the streets 
of Charleston, singing "John Brown's body lies 
moldering in the grave," and was back once more at 



LIXCOLX'S FIRST XOMIXATIOX 



179 



City Point to witness the last drawing of the scene 
to Five Forks, which was designed by Grant to put 
an end to the struggle. President Lincoln was on 
the Ocean Queen, a river steamer, at City Point. 
Sherman had reached Goldsboro. His army was in 
need of supplies. He had opened the railroad to 
Newberne, but could not move on to Bucksville with- 
out provisions. He wished to confer with Grant 
before making the last move, and arrived at City 
Point on the afternoon of March 27. Grant had not 
expected him, and I doubt not his coming was an 
agreeable surprise, as it would enable the two com- 
manders to act in concert. 

I was early at General Grant's head-quarters on 
the morning of the 28th. Adjutant-General Bow- 
ers, whose acquaintance I made in 1862 on the 
Tennessee, was ever courteous. I was examining 
a map of the military situation which he laid before 
me, when, looking down the line of log huts which 
constituted the head-quarters' camp, I saw General 
Grant step upon the plank-walk, smoking as usual, 
and then the tall form of President Lincoln, wearing 
his stove-pipe hat. It was a mild spring morning, but 
he wore an overcoat. Next to emerge from the hut 
was Sherman, wearing an old slouch hat, his panta- 
loons tucked into his boots, his uniform faded and 
worn. He was talking rapidly and emphasizing his 
points with gesticulation. The three, Lincoln in the 



l8o REMINISCENCES OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

center, formed the front rank, and walked slowly 
toward the Adjutant-General's office, Sherman talk- 
ing, the others respectful listeners. In the second 
rank came Generals Meade, Ord, and Crook. It was 
a historical group — names which will live long in 
history. There were several other officers who had 
called to pay their respects to the President. 

They came into the Adjutant-General's office, 
the President taking the precedence. He saw 
and recognized me, extended his hand, and said 
smilingly : 

" What news have you ?" I never have been able 
to settle in my own mind the significance of the 
question, but I think humor prompted it, for in 
those days correspondents often sent news which 
was not altogether reliable. 

" I have just arrived from Charleston and Savan- 
nah," I replied. 

" Indeed ! " It was a tone indicative of a pleasant 
surprise. " Well, I am right glad to see you. How 
do the people like being back in the Union again?" 
he said, as he sat down in the chair placed for him 
by General Bowers. 

" I think some of them are reconciled to it," I 
replied, " if we may draw conclusions from the 
action of one planter, who, while I was there, came 
down the Savannah River with his whole family — 
wife, children, negro woman and her children, of 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMLXATION 



I«I 



whom he was father — and with his crop of cotton, 
which he was anxious to sell at the highest price." 

The President's eyes sparkled, as they always did 
when his humor was aroused. 

" Oh, yes, I see," he said with a laugh which was 
peculiarly his own — " I see ; patriarchal times once 
more ; Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael, 
all in one boat ! " He chuckled a moment, and 
added : 

" I reckon they'll accept the situation now that 
they can sell their cotton." 

The maps were being placed for his inspection, 
that he might see the situation of the two armies — 
Grant's stretching beyond Thatcher's Run, ready to 
make its final move ; Sherman's at Goldsboro, in 
position to move upon Bucksville. 

" We shall be in position to catch Lee between 
our two thumbs," said Sherman, who did pretty 
much all the talking. Grant taking but little part. 
The stay was brief, the President going on board 
the Ocean Queen, and Sherman a little later going 
on board the Bat^ a fleet craft which steamed 
rapidly down the James, carrying him to Moore- 
head City. During the afternoon Sheridan's cavalry 
was moving south past Petersburg and on to Five 
Forks. 



1 82 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

VI. 

I come to the morning of April 3d. It was not 
far from three o'clock when there was an explosion 
which aroused the whole army from its slumbers. 
The Confederates had bloWn up their ironclads in 
the James. Five Forks had been fought. Lee's 
lines were broken and his army in retreat. I was 
early in Petersburg. The Union troops, flushed 
with victory, conscious that the last hours of the 
Confederacy had arrived, were sweeping through the 
streets with wild hurrahs. I heard the whistle of the 
locomotive on the military railroad leading to City 
Point, and saw the train, a single car, which brought 
President Lincoln to the scene. The soldiers saw 
him, swung their hats, and gave a yell of delight. 
He lifted his hat and bowed. Perhaps I was mis- 
taken, but the lines upon his face seemed far deeper 
than I had ever seen them before. There was no 
sign of exultation in his demeanor. He mounted a 
horse, and under a small cavalry escort rode through 
the town. I did not follow him, but put spurs to 
my horse and rode alone to Richmond, over ground 
which twenty-four hours before had been swept by 
shot and shell, entering the city while the flames 
were still rolling heavenward from the buildings fired 
by the departing Confederates. The fire was raging 
on two sides of the Spotswood Hotel when I en- 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION 1 83 

tcred it. The clerk was the only person visible. 
He bowed from habit. 

"Can I have a room .-' " I asked. 

" Take any room you please. I dare say you 
won't occupy it long. You see we are liable to be 
burnt out any moment." 

I took up the pen and wrote my name and resi- 
dence large — the first Yankee after the long list of 
majors, colonels and generals of the " C. S. A." 

The clerk looked at it and smiled. I wandered 
at will through the streets, beholding a woe-begone 
crowd gazing mournfully upon the scene of deso- 
lation, guarding the piles of furniture heaped upon 
the grass springing fresh and green in the Capi- 
tol square — bedding, tables, chairs, looking-glasses, 
crockery, children, weeping women, groups of old 
men, weak and irresolute, trying to guard the wreck 
of their property from the crowd of pilferers ready 
to seize the plunder. The troops of General Dev- 
en's division were doing provost guard duty, and 
the soldiers shared their rations with the women 

and children. 

VII. 

During the following forenoon I was in the Rep- 
resentatives' Chamber in the Capitol, when a plain, 
quick-stepping gentleman entered — Admiral Farra- 
gut, who had hastened in from Norfolk to take a 
look at the situation. Having the latest account of 



iS^ REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

what the army had done, I gave him the details of 
the last movement to Five Forks. He listened with 
intense interest, and said, " Thank God, it is about 
over." 

In the afternoon of the same day I was standing 
on the bank of the James, when I saw a boat 
pulled by twelve sailors coming up the river, and a 
moment later recognized the tall form of the Presi- 
dent, with Admiral Porter by his side. Captain 
Adams of the Navy, Lieutenant Clemens of the 
Signal Corps, and the President's son Tad. 

Near at hand was a lieutenant directing the con- 
struction of a bridge across the canal. The men 
under his charge were negroes who had been im- 
pressed into service, and who were eager to work 
for their rations. 

" Would you like to see the man who made you 
free ? " I said to one of the negroes. 

"What, massa?" 

" Would you like to see Abraham Lincoln, who 
made you free ? " 

"Yes, massa." 

" There he is, that man with the tall hat." 

" Be dat Massa Linkinn ? " 

" That is President Lincoln." 

" Hallelujah ! Hurrah, boys, Massa Linkinn's 
come ! " 

He swung his old straw hat, slapped his hands and 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION 1 85 

jumped into the air. In an instant the fifty negroes 
under the lieutenant were shouting it. They ran 
towards the landing, yelling and shouting like luna- 
tics. I could hear the cry running up the streets 
and lanes, " Massa Linkinn — Massa Linkinn," and 
the next moment there was a crowd of sable-hued 
men and women and children with wondering white 
eyeballs rushing pell-mell towards the landing. 

President Lincoln recognized me. "Can you di- 
rect us to General Wirtzel's head-quarters ? " he 
asked. 

I informed him that I could do so. The boat 
came alongside the landing. Six marines in blue 
caps and jackets, armed with carbines, stepped on 
shore, then the President and little Tad, Admiral 
Porter and the rest, followed by six more marines. 
I indicated to Captain Adams the direction, and the 
procession under his lead began its march up the 
street toward Capitol Hill, the crowd increasing 
every moment, the cry of the delighted colored 
people rising like the voice of many waters. 

I recall a negro woman who was jumping in ec- 
stasy, clapping her hands, and shouting, " Glory ! 
glory ! glory ! " She could find no other words. 

Another had for her refrain, " Bress de Lord ! 
bress de Lord ! bress de Lord ! " 

The tropical exuberance of sentiment characteristic 
of the African race burst into full flower upon the 



1 86 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

instant, and no wonder. Abraham Lincoln was their 
Saviour, their Moses, who had brought them through 
the Red Sea and the desert to the promised land ; 
their Christ, their Redeemer. We who have always 
had our liberty, we cool-blooded Anglo-Americans, 
can have no adequate realization of the ecstasy of 
that moment on the part of those colored people of 
Richmond. They were drunk with ecstasy. They 
leaped into the air, hugged and kissed one another, 
surged around the little group in a wild delirium of 
joy. They would gladly have prostrated themselves 
before him — allowed him to walk on their bodies — if 
by so doing they could have expressed their joy. 

We reached the base of Capitol Hill. The after- 
noon was warm, and the President desired to rest. 
The procession halted. The crowd had become so 
dense that it was difficult to advance, and a cavalry- 
man rode to General Shepley, who was placed in 
command of the city, for an escort. While thus 
resting, an old negro, wearing a few rags, whose 
white, crisp hair appeared through his crownless 
straw hat, lifted the hat from his head, kneeled 
upon the ground, clasped his hands, and said, " May 
de good Lord bress and keep you safe, Massa 
President Linkum." 

Mr. Lincoln lifted his own hat and bowed to the 
old man. The moisture gathered in his eyes. He 
brushed the tears away, and the procession moved 



LINCOLN'S FIRST NOMINATION 1 87 

on up the hill, a half dozen cavalrymen, with Gen- 
eral Shepley, opening the way. 

The procession reached Wirtzel's head-quarters — 
the mansion from which Jefferson Davis had taken 
his quick departure the previous Sunday. 

President Lincoln wearily ascended the steps, and 
by chance dropped into the very chair usually occu- 
pied by Mr. Davis when at his writing-table. 

Such was the entrance of the Chief of the Repub- 
lic into the capital of the late Confederacy. There 
was no sign of exultation, no elation of spirit, but, 
on the contrary, a look of unutterable weariness, as 
if his spirit, energy and animating force were wholly 
exhausted. 

The gentlemen who had been deputed to meet 
General Wirtzel in the early morning came in and 
were introduced. They were courteously and kindly 
received. 

Later in the afternoon I saw President Lincoln 
riding through the streets, taking a hasty glance at 
the scene of desolation and woe. There was no 
smile upon his face. Paler than ever his counte- 
nance, deeper than ever before the lines upon his 
forehead. The driver turned his horses towards 
the landing. The visit to the capital of the Con- 
federacy was ended. 

I never saw him again. A few weeks later the 
bullet of the assassin accomplished its fatal work, 



igg REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM IINCOLN 

ending the earthly labors of this man of the people 
— whose influence was far wider than the Republic — 
held in such reverence that three years later I found 
/myself drawn along the railway crossing the Apen- 
nines by the locomotive Abraham Lincoln. 

CHARLES CARLTON COFFIN. 



VII 

LINCOLN AND THE CABINET 

FEW men have had the opportunity to render 
services so important and beneficial to the coun- 
try and humanity as Abraham Lincoln. But we may 
question whether his career as President and Eman- 
cipator through the trying scenes of the great Civil 
War, or even the tragic and touching incidents of 
his untimely death, would have excited and kept 
alive the affectionate and ever-increasing interest in 
his character, if that character had not been marked 
by traits, some of them quaint, original and homely, 
that appealed to the common heart of mankind and 
revealed that touch of nature that makes the whole 
world kin. It has been often and truthfully said of 
him that he was a man whose heart lay close to the 
great popular heart and felt its beatings. Even after 
he had reached the perilous elevation of the White 
House, where the truth is apt to be seen through 
very refracted mediums, he never for a moment lost 
the faculty of reading the mind of those whom he 
called "the plain people." In truth he was, by birth, 
education, experience and sympathy, one of "the 



IQO REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

plain people " himself, and the traits that make him 
so uniquely interesting were simply the outgrowth 
of a mind original and vigorous, and a kindly heart 
developed by and taking shape from the modes of 
thought and expression, the habits and manner of 
life of the people amid whom he had been brought 
up and lived. Born in England or Massachusetts, 
and educated in conventional fashion at Oxford or 
Harvard, he would doubtless have been a man of 
mark and power, but he would not have been the 
Abraham Lincoln whom the people knew and loved. 
The training of the schools would probably have 
polished away, not indeed the native humor and 
shrewd faculty of observation, but that quaint and 
original habit of thought and speech which found 
constant expression in racy and effective phrase and 
in stories of Western life, often homely but never 
obscene, and always singularly apt in illustration. 

But I am not writing an essay on Mr. Lincoln's char- 
acter or genius. My less ambitious work is to record 
a few examples of his " preaching by parables," and 
of his habit of condensing an idea into a single tell- 
ing phrase. 

When these incidents happened I may premise 
that I was in the public service, and, by virtue of a 
custom established by Mr. Lincoln, I had occasional 
access to the Cabinet meetings during the absence 
of my departmental chief, the Attorney-General. 



LINCOLN AND THE CABINET IQI 

The skill and success with which Mr. Lincoln 
would dispose of an embarrassing question or avoid 
premature committal to a policy advocated by others 
is well known. He knew how to send applicants 
away in good humor even when they failed to ex- 
tract the desired response. 

A story told of him after General Cameron's re- 
tirement from the War Department illustrates this 
habit. Every one knows that Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet 
was chosen chiefly from his rivals for the Presiden- 
tial nomination, and from considerations largely 
political. But the exigencies of the war demanded, 
in the opinion of many good Republicans, a reorgan- 
ization of the Cabinet based on the special fitness of 
each member for the great work in hand. Of this 
opinion were some of the leading Republican Sen- 
ators. After the retirement of General Cameron 
they held a caucus and appointed a committee to 
wait on the President. The committee represented 
that, inasmuch as the Cabinet had not been chosen 
with reference to the war, and had more or less lost 
the confidence of the country, and since the Presi- 
dent had decided to select a new War Minister, they 
thought the occasion was opportune to change the 
whole seven Cabinet Ministers. They therefore ear- 
nestly advised him to make a clean sweep and select 
seven new men, and so restore the waning confidence 
of the country. 



192 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The President listened with patient courtesy, and 
when the Senators had concluded he said, with a 
characteristic gleam of humor in his eye : 

" Gentlemen, your request for a change of the 
whole Cabinet because I have made one change 
reminds me of a story I once heard in Illinois of a 
farmer who was much troubled by skunks. They 
annoyed his household at night, and his wife insisted 
that he should take measures to get rid of them. 
One moonlight night he loaded his old shot-gun and 
stationed himself in the yard to watch for the in- 
truders, his wife remaining in the house anxiously 
awaiting the result. After some time she heard the 
shot-gun go off, and in a few minutes the farmer en- 
tered the house. 'What luck had you?' said she. 
* I hid myself behind the wood-pile/ said the old 
man, 'with the shot-gun pointed toward the hen- 
roost, and before long there appeared not one skunk 
but seven. I took aim, blazed away, killed one, and 
he raised such a fearful smell that I concluded it was 
best to let the other six go.' " 

With a hearty laugh the Senators retired, and 
nothing more was heard of Cabinet reconstruction. 

One of Mr. Lincoln's most amiable qualities was 
the patience and gentleness with which he would 
listen to people who thought they had wrongs to 
redress or claims to enforce. But sometimes, when 
his patience had been abused for selfish or unworthy 



LINCOLN AND THE CABINET IQ3 

purposes, he was quite capable of administering a 
caustic rebuke in his own way. 

One day, when he was alone and busily engaged 
on an important subject, involving vexation and anx- 
iety, he was, by some mischance, disturbed by the 
unwarranted intrusion of three men, who, without 
apology, proceeded to lay their claim before him. 
The spokesman of the three reminded the President 
that they were the owners of some torpedo or other 
warlike invention which, if the government would 
only adopt it, would soon crush the rebellion. 
" Now," said the spokesman, " we have been here to 
see you time and again ; you have referred us to the 
Secretary of War, to the Chief of Ordnance, and the 
General of the Army, and they give us no satisfac- 
tion. We have been kept here waiting, till money 
and patience are exhausted, and we now come to 
demand of you a final reply to our application." 

Mr. Lincoln listened quietly to this insolent tirade, 
and at its close the old twinkle came into his eye. 

"You three gentlemen remind me of a story I 
once heard," said he, " of a poor little boy out West 
who had lost his mother. His father wanted to give 
him a religious education, and so placed him in the 
family of a clergyman, whom he directed to instruct 
the little fellow carefully in the Scriptures. Every 
day the boy was required to commit to memory and 
recite one chapter of the Bible. Things proceeded 



IQ4 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

smoothly until they reached that chapter which de- 
tails the story of the trials of Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abednego in the fiery furnace. The boy got on well 
until he was asked to repeat these three names, but 
he had forgotten them. His teacher told him he 
must learn them, and gave him another day to do so. 
Next day the boy again forgot them. ' Now,' said 
the teacher, 'you have again failed to remember 
those names, and you can go no further till you have 
learned them. I will give you another day on this 
lesson, and if you don't repeat the names I will pun- 
ish you.' A third time the boy came to recite, and 
got down to the stumbling-block, when the clergy- 
man said : ' Now tell me the names of the men in the 
fiery furnace.' ' Oh,' said the boy, * here come those 
three infernal bores ! I wish the devil had them ! ' " 

Having received their " final answer " the three 
patriots retired, and at the Cabinet meeting which 
followed directly after, the President, in high good 
humor, related how he had dismissed his untimely 
visitors. 

The humorous aspect of a subject never failed to 
strike him, and the illustrative story was as ready 
for a grave matter of business as in its lighter 
hours. Often during the war United States mar- 
shals made arrests and seizures, the legality of which 
would be tested by judicial proceedings against 
them. For their protection Congress appropriated 



LINCOLN AND THE CABINET ig^ 

$100,000, to be expended under the direction of the 
President in defending United States officers in 
such suits. Some of the marshals thus sued had 
been clamorous for orders from the Attorney-Gen- 
eral to the United States district-attorneys to de- 
fend these suits. But when it became known that 
the President had $100,000 for this purpose the 
marshals ceased to importune the Attorney-General 
for counsel, and " went " for the money. 

In submitting to the President some rules for his 
approval under which the fund should be paid to 
the marshals, I spoke of the fact that they no longer 
sought the aid of the district-attorneys but were 
all anxious to get control of the money. " Yes," 
said he, " they will now all be after the money and 
be content with nothing else. They are like a man 
in Illinois, whose cabin was burned down, and 'ac- 
cording to the kindly custom of early days in the 
West, his neighbors all contributed something to 
start him again. In his case they had been so lib- 
eral that he soon found himself better off than be- 
fore the fire, and he got proud. One day, a neigh- 
bor brought him a bag of oats, but the fellow re- 
fused it with scorn. ' No,' said he, ' I'm not taking 
oats now. I take nothing but money.' " 

A friend of mine was one of a delegation who 
called on Mr. Lincoln to ask the appointment of 
a gentleman as Commissioner to the Sandwich Isl- 



196 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ands. They presented their case as earnestly as 
possible, and, besides his fitness for the place, they 
urged that he was in bad health, and a residence 
in that balmy climate would be of great benefit to 
him. The President closed the interview with this 
discouraging remark : 

" Gentlemen, I am sorry to say that there are 
eight other applicants for that place, and they are all 
sicker than your man." 

Many examples might be given of felicitous 
phrases, often of rustic origin, that gave point to his 
speech. Once, presenting to him an eminent law- 
yer, the President courteously said he was familiar 
with the Judge's professional reputation. The Judge 
responded : 

" And we do not forget that you, too, Mr. Presi- 
dent, are a distinguished member of the bar." 

" Oh," said Mr. Lincoln modestly, " I'm only a 
mast-fed lawyer." 

If there be any who do not see the point of this 
quaint suggestion of a self-educated lawyer, let them 
look at the illustration from Dr. South under the 
word " mast " in Webster's Dictionary. 

When Attorney-General Bates resigned, late in 
1864 (following the resignation of Postmaster-Gen- 
eral Blair earlier in that year), the Cabinet was 
left without a Southern member. A few days be- 
fore the meeting of the Supreme Court, which then 



LINCOLN AND THE CABINET loy 

met in December, Mr. Lincoln sent for me and 
said : 

" My Cabinet has shrunk up North, and I must 
find a Southern man. I suppose if the twelve 
Apostles were to be chosen nowadays the shrieks 
of locality would have to be heeded. I have invited 
Judge Holt to become Attorney-General, but he 
seems unwilling to undertake the Supreme Court 
work. I want you to see him, remove his objection 
if you can, and bring me his answer." 

I then had charge of the government cases in 
the Supreme Court, and they were all ready for 
argument. I saw Judge Holt, explained the situa- 
tion, and assured him that he need not appear in 
court unless he chose to do so. He had, however, 
decided to decline the invitation, and I returned to 
the President and so informed him. 

"Then," said he, "I will offer it to James Speed, 
of Louisville, a man I know well, though not so well 
as I know his brother Joshua. That, however, is 
not strange, for I slept with Joshua for four years, 
and I suppose I ought to know him well. But 
James is an honest man and a gentleman, and if he 
comes here you will find he is one of those well- 
poised men, not too common here, who are not 
spoiled by a big office." 

Mr. Lincoln was himself a perfect illustration of 
that remark. His modest, manly nature was quite 



iqS 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



unaffected by the accidents oif place and power. It 
was a common saying that he was far more acces- 
sible than many a chief of bureau or clerk. Many 
authentic anecdotes are told to show the kindness 
with which he received and heard the stories of 
those whom the sorrows of the war brought to him 
for relief, and no bruised heart ever came to him to 
invoke Executive clemency or assistance that did 
not go away, if not healed, at least consoled and 
grateful for patient hearing and kindly sympathy. 

In the spring of 1863, a very handsome and at- 
tractive young lady from Philadelphia came to my 
office with a note from a friend, asking me to assist 
her in obtaining an interview with the President. 
Some time before she had been married to a young 
man who was a lieutenant in a Pennsylvania regi- 
ment. He had been compelled to leave her the day 
after the wedding to rejoin his command in the 
Army of the Potomac. After some time he obtained 
leave of absence, returned to Philadelphia, and 
started on a brief honeymoon journey with his bride. 
A movement of the army being imminent, the War 
Department issued a peremptory order requiring all 
absent officers to rejoin their regiments by a certain 
day on penalty of dismissal in case of disobedience. 
The bride and groom, away on their hurried wedding 
tour, failed to see the order, and on their return he 
was met by a notice of his dismissal from the service. 



LINCOLN AND THE CABINET 1 99 

The young fellow was completely prostrated by the 
disgrace, and his wife hurried to Washington to get 
him restored. I obtained for her an interview with 
the President. She told her story with simple and 
pathetic eloquence, and wound up by saying : 

" Mr. Lincoln, won't you help us ? I promise you, 
if you will restore him, he will be faithful to his 
duty." 

The President had listened to her with evident 
sympathy, and a half-amused smile at her earnest- 
ness, and as she closed her appeal he said with pa- 
rental kindness : 

" And you say, my child, that Fred was compelled 
to leave you the day after the wedding ? Poor fel- 
low, I don't wonder at his anxiety to get back, and 
if he stayed a little longer than he ought to have 
done we'll have to overlook his fault this time. 
Take this card to the Secretary of War and he will 
restore your husband." 

She went to the War Department, saw the Sec- 
retary, who rebuked her for troubling the President, 
and dismissed her somewhat curtly. As it hap- 
pened, on her way down the War Department 
stairs, her hopes chilled by the Secretary's abrupt 
manner, she met the President ascending. He 
recognized her, and with a pleasant smile said ; 

" Well, my dear, have you seen the Secretary ? " 

"Yes, Mr. Lincoln," she replied, "and he seemed 



200 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

very angry with me for going to you. Won't you 
speak to him for me ? " 

" Give yourself no trouble," said he. " I will see 
that the order is issued." 

And in a few days her husband was remanded to 
his regiment. I am sorry to add that, not long 
after, he was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, thus 
sealing with his blood her pledge that he should be 
faithful to his duty. 

Attorney-General Bates, who was a Virginian by 
birth and had many relatives in that State, one day 
heard that a young Virginian, the son of one of his 
old friends, had been captured across the Potomac, 
was a prisoner of war, and was not in good health. 
Knowing the boy's father to be in his heart a Union 
man, Mr. Bates conceived the idea of having the son 
paroled and sent home, of course under promise not 
to return to the army. He went to see the President 
and said : 

" I have a personal favor to ask. I want you to 
give me a prisoner." 

And he told him of the case. The President said : 

" Bates, I have an almost parallel case. The son 
of an old friend of mine in Illinois ran off and entered 
the rebel army. The young fool has been captured, 
is a prisoner of war, and his old broken-hearted father 
has asked me to send him home, promising of course 
to keep him there. I have not seen my way clear to 



LINCOLN AND THE CABINET 20I 

do it, but if you and I unite our influence with this 
administration I believe we can manage it together 
and make two loyal fathers happy. Let us make 
them our prisoners." 

And he did so. 

I often heard the Attorney-General say on his 
return from important Cabinet meetings that the 
more he saw of Mr. Lincoln the more was he im- 
pressed with the clearness and vigor of his intellect 
and the breadth and sagacity of his views, and he 
would add : 

" He is beyond question the master-mind of the 
Cabinet." 

No man could talk with him on public questions 
without being struck with the singular lucidity of 
his mind and the rapidity with which he fastened on 
the essential point. 

A day or two after the news came of the stopping 
of the English steamer Trent by Admiral Wilkes, 
and the forcible capture of Mason and Slidell, the 
President walked into the Attorney-General's room, 
and as he seated himself said to that officer : 

" I am not getting much sleep out of that exploit 
of Wilkes', and I suppose we must look up the law 
of the case. I am not much of a prize lawyer, but it 
seems to me pretty clear that if Wilkes saw fit to 
make that capture on the high seas he had no right 
to turn his quarter-deck into a prize court." 



202 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

His mind quickly saw the point which, first of all, 
gave the act its gravest and most indefensible aspect. 

The memory of Abraham Lincoln is and always 
will be precious to the American people, and the 
better his character and conduct are understood the 
brighter will he shine among those names that the 
world will not willingly let die. 

TITIAN J. COFFEY. 



VIII 
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 

" Without doubt the greatest man of rebellion times, the one matchless 
among forty millions for the peculiar difficulties of the period, was Abraham 
Lincoln." James Longstreet. 

MR. LINCOLN'S greatness was founded upon 
his devotion to truth, his humanity and his 
innate sense of justice to all. 

In his career as a lawyer, he traversed a wide 
range of territory in Illinois ; he attended many 
courts and had many professional engagements, 
some remunerative and others not. In all his con- 
flicts at the bar, wherein it may be said he was suc- 
cessful in every case that he ought to have been, he 
never inflicted an unnecessary wound upon an ad- 
versary, and no one ever thought of uttering a rude 
word to him. He affected no superior wisdom over 
his fellows, yet he was often appealed to by the 
judge to say what rule of law ought to be applied in 
a given case, and what disposition the parties ought 
to make of it, and his opinion, when expressed, al- 
ways seemed to be so reasonable, fair and just, that 
the parties accepted it. He was never known to re- 



204 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

buke any one for intemperance, profanity, or other 
violation of social duty. While he professed nothing 
in these respects, people did not drink immoderately 
in his presence, neither were they vulgar nor profane. 
When he appeared, every one seemed to be happy ; 
they wanted to hear him talk ; he always had some- 
thing to say that would amuse or instruct them — 
something that they had not heard before. He 
argued great causes, in which principle and property 
were involved, logically, and with wonderful ability. 
Trifling causes he met with ridicule, and often by an 
anecdote, in the use of which he was unsurpassed : 
the cause would be abandoned in a gale of merri- 
ment, the losing party being neither provoked nor 
angry. 

A man endowed with such qualities was bound to 
be a successful politician ; and, if he turned his 
attention in that direction, none who knew him 
could doubt upon which side he would be, or with 
which party he would unite. He was a Whig, 
because he believed the principles of that party best 
conduced to the welfare of his fellow-man. He be- 
lieved that the true principles of government were 
those which Mr. Clay advocated. He believed in the 
protection of American industries. He believed 
that the slavery of men was wrong in principle, and 
impossible of justification, and he held in profound 
veneration and respect the founders of the State of 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 205 

Illinois, who had, by constitutional provision, for- 
ever prevented the existence of that institution in 
the State. 

His opinions upon this subject would have re- 
mained a sentiment only, for he manifested no dis- 
position by word or act to interfere with slavery 
where it existed, but for the violent attempt to intro- 
duce slavery in Kansas and Nebraska upon the re- 
peal of the Missouri Compromise. Mr. Douglas, the 
author of the repeal, sought to justify his act by the 
claim that the Kansas-Nebraska act submitted the 
question of slavery to the people of those territories, 
when they should come to adopt a constitution and 
apply for admission into the Union as States. Upon 
the questions involved the debates between him and 
Mr. Lincoln occurred. 

There were comparatively few Abolitionists, in 
the strict sense of the term, in the State of Illinois. 
Their doctrines and pretensions were very unpop- 
ular. But a few years had gone by since Lovejoy 
was mobbed and killed at Alton, his press thrown 
into the river, and his murder passed unavenged ; 
and yet Lovejoy neither said nor published anything 
more hostile to slavery than Lincoln uttered in those 
debates. But Lovejoy was an avowed Abolitionist ; 
Lincoln was not. Mr. Douglas said at Freeport, in 
the northern part of the State, that Mr. Lincoln 
would not dare to speak at Carlisle, in the southern 



14 



2o6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

part of the State, where they were soon to appear, 
in the same terms he did at Freeport. When they 
reached Carlisle, Mr. Lincoln referred to Mr. Doug- 
las's remark, and spoke in the same strain as before, 
and no one remonstrated. He could do this because 
the people believed he was entirely sincere. His ear- 
nest and gentle manners compelled them to respect 
and tolerate the freedom of speech. At Charleston 
he said : " Because I do not want and would not 
have a negro woman for a slave it does not follow 
that I want her for a wife." This expression illus- 
trates his aptness in enforcing an argument. A com- 
mittee from the convention sitting in Richmond, 
which finally passed the Virginia ordinance of seces- 
sion, went to Washington with the request that the 
President should order the evacuation by Major An- 
derson of Fort Sumter. During the colloquy which 
occurred between Mr. Lincoln and this committee, 
Mr. Lincoln said : 

" I understand you claim and believe yourselves 
to be Union men, that the Richmond Convention is 
opposed to a dissolution of the Union, and that you 
believe a majority of the people of the State want to 
remain in the Union." 

They said: "Yes." 

Then Mr. Lincoln replied : 

" I can't understand it at all ; Virginia wants to 
remain in the Union, and yet wants me to let South 



■A 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 207 

Carolina go out and the Union be dissolved, in order 
that Virginia may stay in." 

The masterly debates between Douglas and Lin- 
coln made Lincoln the nominee of the Republican 
Party for President at the Chicago Convention in 
i860, to the great disappointment of Mr. Seward 
and his supporters. The election came on, and re- 
sulted in the election of a majority of Republican 
electors ; but these electors did not receive a major- 
ity of the public vote by nearly a million of votes, 
which fact Mr. Lincoln often referred to during his 
administration. The Republican Party, as such, 
etood pledged to the maintenance, inviolate, of the 
rights of the States, and especially the right of each 
State to order and control its own domestic institu- 
tions according to its own judgment exclusively. 
To that pledge Mr. Lincoln determined rigorously 
to adhere, and if, during his administration, there 
was any seeming digression from that resolve, it was 
brought about and compelled by the exigencies of 
the war. In his first inaugural address he expressed 
himself as follows : 

" I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to in- 
terfere with the institution of slavery in the States 
where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to 
do so, and I have no inclination to do so." 

This, he said, was quoted from one of his former 
speeches, and, further, that the same sentiment 



2o8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

would be found in nearly all his public speeches. 
In the course of his address he said : 

" No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully 
get out of the Union ; resolves and ordinances to 
that effect are legally void, and acts of violence 
within any State or States, against the authority of 
the United States, are insurrectionary or revolution- 
ary, according to circumstances." 

Then followed a declaration that, in his view of the 
Constitution and the laws, the Union was unbroken, 
and that to the extent of his ability he would take 
care that the laws of the Union be faithfully exe- 
cuted in all the States ; that there need be no blood- 
shed or violence in doing this, and that there would 
be none unless it was forced upon the national 
authority. It is needless to say that these pledges 
were kept. 

The frankness of this inaugural address, and the 
pledges contained in it, inspired the devotees of the 
Union in the North with the hope that peace would 
finally prevail. It is plain that Mr, Lincoln enter- 
tained such hope, and he had ample reason for it if 
he considered the popular vote. It was but fair to 
assume that the votes cast for Messrs. Douglas and 
Bell, with the fusion vote of Pennsylvania for Breck- 
inridge, were, with but few exceptions, the votes of 
Union men. They, with the votes cast for him, 
amounted to nearly 4,000,000 votes, leaving only 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 209 

600,000 or 700,000 who voted for Breckinridge, 
who were for the most part disunionists. It was in- 
credible that these Union voters would join in a 
rebellion for the dissolution of the Union over the 
express pledge in the inaugural address that " the 
government will not assail you. You can have no 
conflict without being yourselves the aggressors." 

Mr. Bell was nominated as a Union man ; his sup- 
porters were Unionists of the strictest order ; at any 
rate they professed to be, and undoubtedly they 
were. But the mass of them were in the South, and 
more or less interested in the institution of slavery, 
and were inconsiderate enough to say during the 
canvass that if Mr. Lincoln should be elected, and 
should attempt to maintain the Union by force, they 
would, with the Breckinridge men, resist. When 
the war came, they felt the force of their pledge. 
They joined the rebellion, and, as was said at the 
time, they were generally placed in the front, and 
made to bear the brunt of the battle. 

During the canvass which terminated in the elec- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Douglas omitted no occa- 
sion to express his devotion to the preservation of 
the Union. He traversed the whole country, and in 
all his speeches left no room to doubt his determina- 
tion to stand by the government, no matter who was 
elected. The pledges then made he kept, and they 
were of immense value to the Union cause, and for 



2IO REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

them Mr. Lincoln never omitted to express his grati- 
fication and his obligation to Mr. Douglas. 

In a retrospect of the scenes of those times, until 
the firing upon Fort Sumter, it must be apparent 
to all that good fortune attended Mr. Lincoln. The 
Secessionists dominated both Houses, and they had 
it in their power to prevent the counting of the elec- 
toral vote. They could have prevented his peaceful 
inauguration. It can hardly be supposed that Mr. 
Jefferson Davis would ever have permitted the can- 
vassing of the electoral vote, and the subsequent 
inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, by which, in the form 
prescribed by the Constitution, he was invested with 
the executive authority of the nation, if he had sup- 
posed Mr. Lincoln would have forcibly resisted the 
dissolution of the Union. In contemplating the 
awful crime of the rebellion, and the great destruc- 
tion of life which Mr. Davis, if he possessed the 
abilities which his friends ascribe to him, ought to 
have realized, how is his conduct to be accounted 
for in permitting the vote to be canvassed and Mr. 
Lincoln inaugurated ? It is in vain to say that he 
failed to inaugurate anarchy because it was criminal, 
when he was preparing to enter upon a line of con- 
duct which he ought to have known, if persisted in, 
would within a very brief time lead to a destructive 
war. It adds nothing to his fame if, in charity, it be 
said that he expected a peaceful separation ; that 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 211 

the nation would voluntarily consent to a dissolution 
of the Union and to its own death. 

Mr. Seward was in the Senate with Mr. Davis in 
the last session of Congress of 1 860-1861. He was 
satisfied that Mr. Davis believed there would be a 
peaceful dissolution of the Union ; that Davis ex- 
pected to be President of the Southern Confederacy- 
then already taking shape, and that Mr. Seward 
would be Secretary of State under Mr. Lincoln. 
Mr. Seward was apprehensive that Mr. Davis might 
inaugurate the rebellion before Mr. Lincoln was to 
be inaugurated — that he would resist the canvass- 
ing of the electoral vote, and this apprehension led 
to his famous Astor House speech. Mr. Seward 
afterward, at a dinner at Willard's Hotel, gave the 
following version of that affair. Referring to a 
speech that Mr. Oakey Hall had then lately made 
in the City of New York, he said : 

" Oakey Hall says I am the most august liar in the 
United States ; that I said in the winter before the 
war, in a speech at the Astor House, that the trouble 
would all be over and everything settled in sixty 
days. I would have Mr. Oakey Hall to know that 
when I made that speech the electoral vote was not 
counted, and I knew it never would be if Jeff Davis 
believed there would be war. We both knew that 
he was to be President of the Southern Confederacy, 
and that I was to be Secretary of State under Mr. 



2 12 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln. I wanted the vote counted and Lincoln 
inaugurated. I had to deceive Davis, and I did it. 
That's why I said it would all be settled in sixty 
days." 

Whatever may have been the effect of Mr. Sew- 
ard's speech with respect to the counting of the elec- 
toral vote, it is certain that it was made with the sole 
object of securing the orderly and due canvass of the 
electoral vote and the peaceful inauguration of Mr. 
Lincoln. Mr. Seward deemed that all-important. 

The war was begun by the firing upon Fort Sum- 
ter. The pretext for making the war was that the 
institution of slavery in the seceding States was en- 
dangered by the Union. They ordained a form of 
government of which, in the language of Mr. Alex- 
ander Stephens, slavery was the chief corner-stone. 
It was apparent from the beginning that if the in- 
stitution of slavery was out of the way the Union 
would have no foes. It was further apparent that 
if the so-called Border States would consent to forego 
slavery, the States which had already confederated 
would be relatively so weak that they would abandon 
the rebellion which they had inaugurated. Mr. Lin- 
coln sought to have the Border States accept com- 
pensation for the slaves held in those States, but 
failed to accomplish his object, and the war went on. 

To the committee from the Richmond Convention, 
before referred to, he said that if the convention then 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 21 3 

in session at Richmond would resolve that Virginia 
would adhere to the Union under any and all circum- 
stances, and thereupon adjourn sine die, he would 
order the evacuation of Fort Sumter. In speaking 
of this some two or three years thereafter, he said : 

" I made the proposition, believing that if Vir- 
ginia adhered to the Union in good faith the Border 
Slave States would stand with Virginia firmly for 
the Union, and that the Secessionists would soon 
discover that their rebellion could not be successful 
and war would be avoided." 

Upon the closest scrutiny of the administration of 
Mr. Lincoln, it will be found that his paramount ob- 
ject was the preservation of the Union ; and to en- 
force in all the States the laws of the Unites States 
he found it necessary to assault the institution of 
slavery, it was because he deemed it necessary to 
carry out his principal object ; all which was tersely 
expressed in his letter to Mr. Greeley, that he would 
preserve the Union if it could be done without free- 
ing any slaves. 

" And if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I 
would do it — and if I could save it by freeing some 
and leaving others alone I would also do that." 

Mr. Greeley was evidently dissatisfied with the ex- 
planation of Mr. Lincoln, and the Tribune teemed 
with complaints and criticisms of his administration, 
which very much annoyed him ; so much so that he 



214 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

requested Mr. Greeley to come to Washington and 
make known in person his complaints, to the end 
that they might be obviated if possible. The man- 
aging editor of the Tribmie came. Mr. Lincoln 
said : 

"You complain of me. What have I done or 
omitted to do which has provoked the hostility of 
the Tribune ? " 

The reply was : " You should issue a proclamation 
abolishing slavery." 

Mr. Lincoln answered: "Suppose I do that. 
There are now 20,000 of our muskets on the shoul- 
ders of Kentuckians, who are bravely fighting our 
battles. Every one of them will be thrown down or 
carried over to the rebels." 

The reply was : " Let them do it. The cause of 
the Union will be stronger if Kentucky should se- 
cede with the rest than it is now." 

Mr. Lincoln answered : " Oh, I can't think that ! " 

No matter to what political party any man had 
been attached, if he was in good faith for the main- 
tenance of the Union he had the confidence of Mr. 
Lincoln. During his administration he recognized 
but two parties, one for the Union and the other 
against it. He repelled no one ; he strove to make 
friends, not for himself so much as for the preserva- 
tion of the government, and seeing clearly from the 
beginning that property in slaves was in the way of 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 2 I c; 

many, he urged them to accept compensation. His 
wisdom and foresight is now apparent to all. If the 
Border States would have accepted compensation 
for slaves, or if Virginia had adhered to the Union, 
there would have been no war, and slavery would 
have been abolished by agreement and compensa- 
tion. 

Mr. Lincoln in his inaugural said to the malcon- 
tents : 

" Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; 
and when after much loss on both sides, and no gain 
on either, you cease fighting, the identical old ques' 
tions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you." 

Failing to bring about the emancipation of the 
slaves in the Border States by agreement and com- 
pensation, Mr. Lincoln set about the restoration of 
government in the States in rebellion. On the 8th 
of December, 1863, he issued his Proclamation of 
Amnesty. By that proclamation it was declared that 
whenever in any of the seceding States a number of 
persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the 
votes cast in such State at the Presidential election 
of i860, shall have taken the oath required, and not 
violated it, and being qualified voters by the elec- 
tion law of the State existing immediately before the 
so-called Act of Secession, and excluding all others, 
shall re-establish a State government which shall be 
Republican, such shall be recognized as the true gov- 



2i6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ernment of the State, and be protected by the United 
States, as a State, against invasion and domestic vio- 
lence. It will be observed that the persons who 
were authorized to re-establish a State government 
were to be qualified voters of the State before seces- 
sion. Mr. Chase insisted that this paragraph of the 
proclamation should be changed, and the word citi- 
zens inserted in the place of qualified voters. The 
Attorney-General had given an opinion to Mr. Chase, 
November 29, 1862, that colored men born in the 
United States were citizens of the United States. 
That was the law of Mr. Lincoln's administration, 
so that if he had adopted the views of Mr. Chase 
the tenth in number necessary to organize a State 
might have been legally composed of colored men. 
There was no argument upon this proposition. Mr. 
Chase insisted. Mr. Seward quietly observed : " I 
think it is very well as it is." Mr. Lincoln made no 
reply. 

There is abundant evidence, however, proving that 
Mr. Lincoln had no thought of restoring State gov- 
ernments in seceded States through any other instru- 
mentality than by the qualified voters of those States 
before secession was inaugurated. 

It was the purpose of the President to issue a 
proclamation looking to the emancipation of slaves 
during the summer of 1862, but in consequence of 
the unexpected misadventure of General McClellan 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 217 

in the Peninsula before Richmond, it was considered 
prudent to delay the proclamation until some decis- 
ive advantage should be gained by the armies in the 
field. Accordingly, soon after the battle of Antie- 
tam, the first Proclamation of Emancipation was 
made. By that, one hundred days were given the 
States in rebellion to resume their normal condition 
in the government. In the preparation of the final 
Proclamation of Emancipation, of January i, 1863, 
Mr. Lincoln manifested great solicitude. He had his 
original draft printed, and furnished each member of 
his Cabinet with a copy, with the request that each 
should examine, criticise, and suggest any amend- 
ments that occurred to them. At the next meeting 
of the Cabinet, Mr. Chase said : 

" This paper is of the utmost importance, greater 
than any state paper ever made by this government. 
A paper of so much importance, and involving the 
liberties of so many people, ought, I think, to make 
some reference to Deity. I do not observe anything 
of the kind in it." 

Mr. Lincoln said : 

" No ; I overlooked it. Some reference to Deity 
must be inserted. Mr. Chase, won't you make a 
draft of what you think ought to be inserted ? " 

Mr. Chase promised to do so, and at the next 
meeting presented the following : 

" And upon this Act, sincerely believed to be an 



2l8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon 
military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment 
of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty 
God." 

When Mr. Lincoln read the paragraph, Mr. Chase 
said: "You may not approve it, but I thought this 
or something like it would be appropriate." 

Lincoln replied : "I do approve it ; it cannot be 
bettered, and I will adopt it in the very words you 
have written." 

When the parts of the proclamation containing 
the exception from its operation of States and parts 
of States were considered, Mr. Montgomery Blair 
spoke of the importance of the proclamation as a 
state paper, and said that persons in after times, in 
seeking correct information of the occurrences of 
those times, would read and wonder why the thirteen 
parishes and the City of New Orleans in Louisiana, 
and the counties in Virginia about Norfolk, were 
excepted from the proclamation ; they were in 
the " very heart and back of slavery," and unless 
there was some good reason which was then un- 
known to him, he hoped they would not be ex- 
cepted. 

Mr. Seward said : " I think so, too ; I think they 
should not be excepted." 

Mr. Lincoln replied : " Well, upon first view your 
objections are clearly good ; but after I issued the 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 210 

proclamation of September 22, Mr. Bouligny, of 
Louisiana, then here, came to see me. He was a 
great invalid, and had scarcely the strength to walk 
up stairs. He wanted to know of me if these par- 
ishes in Louisiana and New Orleans should hold an 
election, and elect Members of Congress, whether I 
would not except them from this proclamation. I 
told him I would." 

Continuing, he said : " No, I did not do that in so 
many words ; if he was here now he could not re- 
peat any words I said which would amount to an 
absolute promise. But I know he understood me 
that way, and that is just the same to me. They 
have elected members, and they are here now, 
Union men, ready to take their seats, and they have 
elected a Union man from the Norfolk district." 

Mr. Blair said : " If you have a promise out, I will 
not ask you to break it." 

Seward said : "No, no. We would not have you 
do that." 

Mr. Chase then said : " Very true, they have 
elected Hahn and Flanders, but they have not yet 
got their seats, and it is not certain that they will." 

Mr. Lincoln rose from his seat, apparently irri- 
tated, and walked rapidly back and forth, across the 
room. Looking over his shoulder at Mr. Chase, he 
said : " There it is, sir. I am to be bullied by Con- 
gress, am I ? If I do I'll be durned." 



2 20 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Nothing more was said. A month or more there- 
after Hahn and Flanders were admitted to their 
seats. 

The only differences in the Cabinet were upon 
this very question. Mr. Lincoln adhered strictly to 
the opinions expressed in his inaugural : that the re- 
solves and ordinances of secession were void ; that 
the insurgent States were never out of the Union; 
that all that was necessary for them or the people of 
those States to do was to lay down their arms and 
cease fighting, acknowledge the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, and conform to their re- 
quirements. Mr. Chase, with a great many other 
Union men, had a different view of that subject, the 
discussion of which is not now important, further 
than to state that they held that Congress had the 
right and power to enact such laws for the govern- 
ment of the people of those States as they might 
deem expedient for the public safety, including the 
bestowal of suffrage upon negroes. Mr. Lincoln 
thought that suffrage, if it ever came to the negroes, 
should come in other ways. In his Amnesty Procla- 
mation of December 8, 1863, will be found a fair 
indication of his mind concerning the freed people. 
He said that any provision by such State " which 
shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, 
provide for their education, and which may yet be 
consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 22 1 

present condition as a laboring, landless, and home- 
less class, will not be objected to by the national 
executive." 

In all his state papers and writings to that date 
there can be found no assertion that he intended to 
force negro suffrage upon the people of the slave- 
holding States. Doubtless he contemplated that 
some time in the future suffrage would be volun- 
tarily yielded to the blacks by the people of those 
States. From all that could be gathered by those 
who observed his conduct in those times, it seemed 
that his hope was that the people in the insurgent 
States, upon exercising authority under the Consti- 
tution and laws of the United States, necessarily 
recognizing the extinction of slavery, would find it 
necessary to make suitable provision, not only for 
the education of the freedmen, as specified in his 
Amnesty Proclamation, but also for the acquisition 
of property, and its security in their possession; and, 
to insure that, would find it necessary and expedient 
to bestow suffrage upon them in some degree at least. 
We have some evidence that such was his expecta- 
tion and hope. In a letter to Governor Hahn, con- 
gratulating him upon having his name fixed in his- 
tory as the first Free State Governor of Louisiana, 
he said : 

" Now, you are about to have a convention, 
which, among other things, will probably define the 

15 



2 22 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private 
consideration whether some of the colored people 
may not be let in — as, for instance, the very intelli- 
gent, and especially those who have fought gallantly 
in our ranks. They would probably help, in some 
trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty 
within the family of freedom. But this is only a 
suggestion — not to the public, but to you alone." 

It was apparent to all who bore intimate relations 
with Mr. Lincoln, that, foreseeing the termination 
of the war by the submission of the insurgents, his 
mind was seriously affected in contemplation of the 
new responsibilities which would devolve upon him. 
His speech grew more grave, and his aspect more 
serious. His second inaugural address was a faith- 
ful mirror of his mind. He seemed to be oppressed 
with a great care, conscious that changes were about 
to occur which would impose upon him new duties 
in which he might possibly find himself in conflict 
with many of the public men who had supported the 
government in the war. There seemed to be as 
many minds as there were men, and in a majority of 
cases inclined to adhere to their own opinions, with- 
out regard to the opinions of Mr. Lincoln or any one 
else ; yet he felt that the responsibility all rested 
upon him. 

A short time before the capitulation of General 
Lee, General Grant had told him that the war must 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 22^ 

necessarily soon come to an end, and wanted to 
know of him whether he should try to capture Jeff 
Davis, or let him escape from the country if he 
would. He said : 

" Abgut that, I told him the story of an Irishman 
who had taken the pledge of Father Mathew. He 
became terribly thirsty, and applied to a bartender 
for a lemonade, and while it was being prepared he 
whispered to him, 'And couldn't ye put a little brandy 
in it all unbeknown to meself ? ' I told Grant if he 
could let Jeff Davis escape all unbeknown to him- 
self, to let him go. I didn't want him." 

When he returned from the James, where he met 
Messrs. Stephens, Campbell, and Hunter, he related 
some of his conversations with them. He said that 
at the conclusion of one of his discourses, detailing 
what he considered to be the position in which the 
insurgents were placed by the law, they replied : 

"Well, according to your view of the case we are 
all guilty of treason, and liable to be hanged." 

Lincoln replied : 

"Yes, that is so." 

They, continuing, said : 

" Well, we suppose that would necessarily be your 
view of our case, but we never had much fear of being 
hanged while you were President." 

From his manner in repeating this scene he seemed 
to appreciate the compliment highly. There is no 



224 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

evidence in his record that he ever contemplated 
executing any of the insurgents for their treason. 
There is no evidence that he desired any of them to 
leave the country, with the exception of Mr. Davis. 
His great, and apparently his only object, was to 
have a restored Union. Soon after his return from 
the James, the Cabinet was convened, and he read 
to it for approval a message which he had prepared 
to be submitted to Congress, in which he recom- 
mended that Congress appropriate $300,000,000, to 
be apportioned among the several slave States, in 
proportion to slave population, to be distributed to 
the holders of slaves in those States upon condition 
that they would consent to the abolition of slavery, 
the disbanding of the insurgent army, and would 
acknowledge and submit to the laws of the United 
States. 

The members of the Cabinet were all opposed. 
He seemed somewhat surprised at that, and asked : 
" How long will the war last ?" No one answered, 
but he soon said : " A hundred days. We are spend- 
ing now in carrying on the war $3,000,000 a day, 
which will amount to all this money, besides all the 
lives." 

With a deep sigh he added : " But you are all op- 
posed to me, and I will not send the message." 

From time to time persons, probably desiring to 
extol and magnify Mr. Lincoln, have represented 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 22 5 

that he was, during the war, frequently discouraged 
and quite in despair. About nothing in his career 
has he been more misrepresented than by these 
persons in this matter. There was never an houf 
during all the war in which he had any doubt of the 
ultimate success of the Union arms. He was often 
disappointed, and grieved at the disappointment. He 
expected that McClellan would be successful on the 
Peninsula, and afterward that he would follow up his 
victory at Antietam, and that Meade would follow 
up his at Gettysburg; and in speaking of that battle 
and the omission of Meade to pursue and fight, he 
said : 

** He did so well at Gettysburg that I cannot com- 
plain of him." 

As to Grant, after the Vicksburg campaign he 
never expressed a doubt of his success nor seemed to 
have the slightest apprehension that disaster would 
overtake him. 

Persons may have fallen into the error of suppos- 
ing that he was dejected and discouraged from his 
appearance in repose. When not engaged in con- 
versation his countenance wore a sad expression, 
but that was no index of the operation of his mind. 
Chief among his great characteristics were his gen- 
tleness and humanity, and yet he did not hesitate 
promptly to approve the sentences of Kennedy and 
Beall. 



2 26 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

During the entire war there are but few other evi 
dences to be found of a willingness on his part that 
any one should suffer the penalty of death. His 
great effort seemed to be to find some excuse, some 
palliation for offences charged. He strove at all 
times to relieve the citizens on both sides of the in- 
conveniences and hardships resulting from the war. 
It has often been reported that Secretary of War 
Stanton arbitrarily refused to carry out his orders. 
In all such cases reported it will be found that the 
President had given directions to him to issue per- 
mits to persons who had applied to go through the 
lines into the insurgent districts. The President said 
at one time, referring to Stanton's refusal to issue 
the permits and the severe remarks made by the per- 
sons who were disobliged : 

" I cannot always know whether a permit ought to 
be granted, and I want to oblige everybody when I 
can, and Stanton and I have an understanding that 
if I send an order to him that cannot be consistently 
granted, he is to refuse it, which he sometimes does; 
and that led to a remark which I made the other 
day to a man who complained of Stanton, that I 
hadn't much influence with this administration, but 
expected to have more with the next." 

J. P. USHER. 



IX 

LINCOLN 
AND THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION 

MY first meeting with Mr. Lincoln was in Jan- 
uary, 1 86 1, when I visited him at his home 
in Springfield. 

I had a curiosity to see the famous " rail-splitter," 
as he was then familiarly called, and as a member- 
elect of the Thirty-seventh Congress I desired to 
form some acquaintance with the man who was des- 
tined to play a conspicuous part in the impending 
national crisis. Although I had zealously supported 
him in the canvass, and was strongly impressed by 
the grasp of thought and aptness of expression which 
marked his great debate with Douglas, yet, as a 
thorough-going Free Soiler and a member of the 
Radical wing of Republicanism, my prepossessions 
were against him. He was a Kentuckian, and a 
conservative Whig, who had supported General 
Taylor in 1848, and General Scott four years later, 
when the Whig party finally sacrificed both its char- 
acter and its life on the altar of slavery. His nomi- 
nation, moreover, had been secured through the 
diplomacy of conservative Republicans, whose mor- 



2 28 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

bid dread of " abolitionism " unfitted them, as I be- 
lieved, for leadership in the battle with slavery which 
had now become inevitable, while the defeat of Mr. 
Seward had been to me a severe disappointment and 
a real personal grief. Still, I did not wish to do Mr. 
Lincoln the slightest injustice, while I hoped and be- 
lieved his courage and firmness would prove equal to 
the emergency. 

On meeting him, I found him far better-looking 
than the campaign pictures had represented. These, 
as a general rule, were wretched caricatures. His 
face, when lighted up in conversation, was not un- 
handsome, and the kindly and winning tones of his 
voice pleaded for him, as did the smile which played 
about his rugged features. He was full of anecdote 
and humor, and readily found his way to the hearts 
of those who enjoyed a welcome to his fireside. His 
face, however, was sometimes marked by that touch- 
ing expression of sadness which became so generally 
noticeable in the following years. I was much pleased 
with our first Republican Executive, and returned 
home more fully inspired than ever with the purpose 
to sustain him to the utmost in facing the duties of 
his great ofifice. 

The chief purpose of this visit, however, related 
to another matter. The rumor was then current and 
generally credited, that Simon Cameron and Caleb 
B. Smith were to be made Cabinet ministers, and I 



LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAMATION 2 20 

desired to enter my protest against such a movement. 
Mr. Lincoln heard me patiently, but made no com- 
mittal ; and the subsequent selection of these repre- 
sentatives of Pennsylvania and Indiana Republican- 
ism, along with Seward and Chase, illustrated the 
natural tendency of his mind to mediate between 
opposing forces. This was further illustrated a little 
later when some of his old Whig friends pressed the 
appointment of an incompetent and unfit man for an 
important position. When I remonstrated against 
it, Mr. Lincoln replied : " There is much force in 
what you say, but, in the balancing of matters, I 
guess I shall have to appoint him." This "balanc- 
ing of matters " was a source of infinite vexation 
during his administration, as it has been to his suc- 
cessors ; but it was then easier to criticise this policy 
than to point the way to any practicable method of 
avoiding it. 

I did not see Mr. Lincoln again till the day of his 
inauguration, when he entered the Senate-chamber 
arm-in-arm with Mr. Buchanan. The latter was so 
withered and bowed with age that in contrast with 
the towering form of his successor he seemed little 
more than half a man. The public curiosity to see 
the President-elect reached its climax as he made his 
appearance on the east portico of the Capitol. All 
sorts of stories had been told and believed about 
his personal appearance. His character had been 



230 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

grossly misrepresented and maligned in both sections 
of the Union ; and the critical condition of the coun- 
try naturally whetted the appetite of men of all par- 
ties to see and hear the man who was now the central 
figure of the Republic. The tone of moderation, 
tenderness, and good-will which breathed through his 
inaugural speech made a profound impression in his 
favor ; while his voice, though not very strong or 
full-toned, rang out over the acres of people before 
him with surprising distinctness, and, I think, was 
heard in the remotest parts of his audience. 

The pressure for office during the first few months 
of the new administration was utterly unprecedented 
and beggared all description. It was a sort of epi- 
demic, and Mr. Lincoln, at times, was perfectly ap- 
palled by it. It gave him no pause, but pursued him 
remorselessly night and day ; and there v«;^ere mo- 
ments when his face was the picture of an indescrib- 
able weariness and despair. It jarred upon his sen- 
timent of patriotism, when the country was just 
entering upon the awful struggle for its life, and 
seemed to make him sick at heart. Sometimes he 
lost his temper. An instance of this occurred soon 
after his inauguration, which also illustrates his fidel- 
ity to his friends. A delegation of California Re- 
publicans called on him with a proposed political 
slate covering the chief offices on the Pacific coast. 
Their programme was opposed, in part, by Senator 



LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAMATION 531 

Baker, of Oregon, who quite naturally claimed the 
right to be consulted respecting the patronage of 
his section of the Union. Some of the Californians 
very unwisely sought the accomplishment of their 
purpose by assailing both the public and private 
character of the Oregon Senator, who was an old- 
time friend of the President. The anger of Mr, 
Lincoln was kindled instantly, and blazed forth with 
such vehemence and intensity that everybody present 
quailed before it. His wrath was simply terrible, as 
he put his foot down and told the delegation that 
Senator Baker was his friend ; that he would permit 
no man to assail him in his presence ; and that it 
was not possible for them to accomplish their pur- 
pose by any such methods. The result was that the 
charges against Senator Baker were summarily with- 
drawn and apologized for, and such a disposition of 
the offices on the Pacific slope finally made as proved 
satisfactory to all parties. These facts I learned at 
the time from an Intimate personal friend who formed 
a part of the delegation, and who was afterward 
honored by an Important appointment in his State. 

This is not the only case in which Mr. Lincoln lost 
his habitual good temper. After my nomination for 
re-election in the year 1864, Mr. Holloway, who was 
holding the position of Commissioner of Patents, and 
was one of the editors of a Republican newspaper In 
my district, refused to recognize me as the party can- 



232 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

didate, and kept the name of my defeated competi- 
tor standing in his paper. It threatened discord 
and mischief, and I went to the President with 
these facts, and on the strength of them asked for 
Mr. Holloway's removal from office. 

"Your nomination," said Mr. Lincoln, "is as bind- 
ing on Republicans as mine, and you can rest assured 
that Mr. Holloway shall support you, openly and 
unconditionally, or lose his head." 

This was entirely satisfactory, but after waiting a 
week or two for the announcement of my name, I 
returned to the President with the information that 
Mr. Holloway was still keeping up his fight, and that 
I had come to ask of him decisive measures. I saw 
in an instant that his ire was roused. He rang the 
bell for his messenger, and said to him in a very ex- 
cited and emphatic way, 

"Tell Mr. Holloway to come to me !" 

The messenger hesitated, looking somewhat sur- 
prised and bewildered, when Mr. Lincoln said in a 
tone still more emphatic, 

" Tell Mr. Holloway to come to me ! " 

It was perfectly evident that the business would 
now be attended to, and in a few days my name was 
duly announced, and the work of party insubordina- 
tion ceased. 

But the temper of the President was far more seri- 
ously tried early in the year 1862, touching the con- 



LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAMATION 233 

duct of the war. General McClellan had disregarded 
the general order of the President, dated the 19th of 
January, for a movement of all our forces. He had 
protested against the order of January 31st, direct- 
ing an expedition for the purpose of seizing upon the 
railroad south-west of Manassas Junction. He had 
opposed all forward movements of the Army of the 
Potomac, and again and again refused to co-operate 
with the Navy in breaking up the blockade of that 
river. And his movement early in March in the 
direction of the enemy at Centreville and Manassas 
was undertaken with very great reluctance, and after 
the enemy had evacuated these positions. Mr. Lin- 
coln had clung to General McClellan with great per- 
tinacity and in the face of much popular clamor, but 
his patience was now completely exhausted, and his 
passions carried him by storm. According to Sen- 
ator Chandler, from whom I obtained my informa- 
tion, the scene strikingly suggested that described by 
Colonel Lear, when General Washington received 
the news of St. Clair's defeat by the Indians in 1791. 
I well remember the delight and exultation of the 
Michigan Senator as he related the circumstances to 
me, and predicted the victory for our arms which he 
believed it foreshadowed. "Old Abe," said he, "is 
mad, and the war will now go on." 

During the month of January, 1863, I called with 
the Indiana delegation to see the President respect- 



234 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ing the appointment of Judge Otto, of Indiana, ns 
Assistant Secretary of the Interior. He was soon 
after appointed, but Mr. Lincoln then only re- 
sponded to our application by treating us to four 
anecdotes. 

Senator Lane told me that when he heard a story 
that pleased him he took a memorandum of it, and 
filed it away among his papers. This was probably 
true. At any rate, by some method or other, his 
supply seemed inexhaustible, and always aptly avail- 
able. He entered into the enjoyment of his stories 
with all his heart, and completely lived over again 
the delight he had experienced in telling them on 
previous occasions. When he told a particularly 
good story, and the time came to laugh, he would 
sometimes throw his left foot across his right knee, 
and clenching his foot with both hands and bending 
forward, his whole frame seemed to be convulsed 
with the effort to give expression to his sensations. 
His laugh was like that of the hero of Sartor Resar- 
tiis, "a. laugh of the whole man, from head to heel." 
I believe his anecdotes were his great solace and 
safeguard in seasons of severe mental depression. I 
remember that when I called on him on the 2d of 
July, 1862, at the time our forces were engaged in a 
terrific conflict with the enemy near Richmond, and 
everybody was anxious as to the result, he seemed 
quite as placid as usual, and at once yielded to his 



LINCOLN' AND THE PROCLAMATION 235 

ruling passion for story-telling. If I had not known 
his peculiarities, I should have pronounced him in- 
capable of any deep earnestness of feeling ; but his 
manner was so kindly, and so free from the ordinary 
crookedness of the politician and the vanity and self- 
importance of official position, that nothing but good 
will was inspired by his presence. 

In March following I called on the President 
respecting the appointments I had recommended 
under the conscription law, and took occasion to re- 
fer to the failure of General Fremont to obtain a 
command. He said he did not know where to place 
him, and that it reminded him of the old man who 
advised his son to take a wife, to which the young 
man responded, '' Whose wife shall I take ? " He 
proceeded to point out the practical difficulties in 
the way by referring to a number of important com- 
mands which might suit Fremont, but which could 
only be reached by removals he did not wish to 
make. I remarked that I was very sorry if this was 
true, and that it was unfortunate for our cause, as I 
believed his restoration to duty would stir the coun- 
try as no other appointment could. He said : 

"It would stir the country favorably on one side, 
and stir it the other way on the other. It would 
please Fremont's friends, and displease the conserv- 
atives ; and that is all I can see in the stirring ar- 
gument. My proclamation," he added, " was to stir 



236 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the country ; but it has done about as much harm as 
good." 

These observations were characteristic, and show- 
ed how reluctant he still was to turn away from the 
conservative counsels he had so long heeded. 

It has often been asserted that Secretary Stanton 
ruled Mr. Lincoln. This is a mistake. The Secre- 
tary would frequently overawe and sometimes brow- 
beat others, but he was never imperious in dealing 
with the President. This I have from Mr. Watson, 
for some time Assistant Secretary of War, and Mr. 
Whiting, while Solicitor of the War Department. 
Lincoln, however, had the highest opinion of Stan- 
ton, and their relations were always most kindly. 
The following anecdote illustrates the character of 
the two men, and Mr. Lincoln's method of dealing 
with a dilemma. It is related that a committee of 
Western men, headed by Mr. Lovejoy, procured 
from the President an important order looking to 
the exchange of Eastern and Western soldiers, with 
a view to more effective work. Repairing to the 
office of the Secretary, Mr. Lovejoy explained the 
scheme, as he had done before to the President, 
but was met by a flat refusal. 

" But we have the President's order, sir," said 
Lovejoy. 

"Did Lincoln give you an order of that kind?" 
said Stanton. 



LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAALUION 



237 



" He did, sir." 

" Then he is a d d fool," said the irate Sec- 
retary. 

" Do you mean to say the President is a d — — d 
fool ? " asked Lovejoy, in amazement. 

" Yes, sir, if he gave you such an order as that." 

The bewildered Congressman from Illinois betook 
himself at once to the President, and related the re- 
sult of his conference. 

" Did Stanton say I was a d d fool ? " asked 

Lincoln, at the close of the recital. 

" He did, sir; and repeated it." 

After a moment's pause, and looking up, the Pres- 
ident said : 

" If Stanton said I was a d d fool, then I must 

be one, for he is nearly always right, and generally 
says what he means. I will step over and see him." 

Notwithstanding Mr. Lincoln's proverbial caution 
and diplomacy in dealing with difficult problems, he 
was completely armed with the courage of his con- 
victions, after his conclusions had been carefully ma- 
tured. No man was more ready to take the respon- 
sibility when his sense of duty commanded him. 
This was strikingly illustrated in the summer of 
1862, when he refused to sign the confiscation act of 
the 17th of July, without a modification first made 
exempting the fee of rebel land-owners from its op- 
eration. Congress was obliged to make the modifi- 
16 



238 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cation required as the only means of securing the 
important advantages of other features of the meas- 
ure ; but the action of the President was inexpressi- 
bly provoking to a large majority of Congress. It 
was bitterly denounced as an anti-Republican dis- 
crimination between real and personal property, 
when the nation was struggling for its life against 
a rebellious aristocracy founded on the monopoly of 
land and the ownership of negroes. The President 
was charged with thus prolonging the war and ag- 
gravating its cost by paralyzing one of the most po- 
tent means of putting down the rebellion, and pur- 
posely leaving the owners of large estates in full 
possession of their lands at the end of the struggle. 
He was arraigned as the deliberate betrayer of the 
freedmen and poor whites, who had been friendly to 
the Union, while the confiscation of life-estates as a 
war measure could prove of no practical advantage 
to the government or disadvantage to the enemy. 

The popular hostility to the President at this time 
cannot be described, and was wholly without prece- 
dent, and the opposition to him in Congress was 
still more intense. But Mr. Lincoln accepted the 
situation, and patiently abode his time. 

Two years later, when the fortunes of the war and 
his own reflections had wrought a change in his opin- 
ion, his frankness and courage in avowing it were 
as creditable to him as had been his firmness in fac- 



LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAMATION 239 

ing a hostile public. Having heard of this change, I 
called to see him on the 2d of July, 1864, and asked 
him if I might say to the people that what I had 
learned on this subject was true, assuring him that I 
would make a far better fight for our cause if he 
would permit me to do so. He replied that when he 
prepared his veto of our law on the subject two 
years before he had not examined the matter thor- 
oughly, but that on further reflection, and on read- 
ing Solicitor Whiting's law argument, he had changed 
his view, and would now sign a bill striking at the 
fee of rebel land-holders, if we would send it to him. 
I was much gratified by this statement, which was 
of great service to the cause in the canvass ; but, un- 
fortunately, constitutional scruples respecting such 
legislation had gained ground, and although both 
houses of Congress at different times endorsed the 
measure, it never became a law, owing to unavoid- 
able differences between the President and Congress 
on the question of reconstruction. 

Perhaps the most charming trait in the character 
of Mr. Lincoln was his geniality. With the excep- 
tion of occasional seasons of deep depression, his 
nature was all sunshine. His presence seemed a 
message of peace and good-will. Early in the war, 
after the Hutchinson family had been ordered out of 
the Army of the Potomac by General McClellan for 
the offense of singing Whittier's songs, he repeated- 



2 40 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ly welcomed them to the White House and listened 
to the music which had been considered detrimental 
to the service. He was delighted with it, selecting 
his favorite songs, and testifying his satisfaction by 
alternate laughter and tears. He said that if these 
were the songs they had been singing, he wished 
them to continue in the business, and that they 
should have a pass wherever they desired to go. 

Mr. Lincoln used to attend the rousing anti- 
slavery meetings that were held in the Smithsonian 
Institute, in the fall and winter of 1 86 1-2, which 
were addressed by several of the leading orators of 
Abolitionism. At one of these meetings, Horace 
Greeley delivered a written address, which Mr. Lin- 
coln listened to and very greatly admired. I sat by 
his side, and at the conclusion of the discourse he 
said to me : 

"That address is full of good thoughts, and I 
would like to take the manuscript home with me 
and carefully read it over some Sunday." 

During the progress of the war, he and Mr. Gree- 
ley had some radical difference of opinion about its 
prosecution and the duty of the government in deal- 
ing with the question of slavery ; but he had, I know, 
the most profound personal respect for Mr. Greeley, 
and placed the highest estimate upon his services as 
an independent writer and thinker. 

Mr. Lincoln had no resentments. He had kind 



LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAMATION 24 1 

words for men who bitterly assailed him. He joined 
in no outcry against men in civil or military life who 
went astray. When the Republicans were denounc- 
ing Andrew Johnson after his maudlin speech on 
the 4th of March, 1865, he only said, " Poor Andy," 
and expressed the charitable hope that he would 
profit by his dreadful mistake. 

Few subjects have been more debated and less 
understood than the Proclamation of Emancipation. 
Mr. Lincoln was himself opposed to the measure, 
and when he very reluctantly issued the preliminary 
proclamation in September, 1862, he wished it dis- 
tinctly understood that the deportation of the slaves 
was, in his mind, inseparably connected with the 
policy. Like Mr. Clay and other prominent leaders 
of the old Whig party, he believed in colonization, 
and that the separation of the two races was neces- 
sary to the welfare of both. He was at that time 
pressing upon the attention of Congress a scheme of 
colonization in Chiriqui, in Central America, which 
Senator Pomeroy espoused with great zeal, and in 
which he had the favor of a majority of the Cabinet, 
including Secretary Smith, who warmly indorsed the 
project. Subsequent developments, however, proved 
that it was simply an organization for land-stealing 
and plunder, and it was abandoned ; but it is by no 
means certain that if the President had foreseen this 
fact his preliminary notice to the rebels would have 



2 42 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

been given. There are strong reasons for saying 
that he doubted his right to emancipate under the 
war power, and he doubtless meant what he said 
when he compared an Executive order to that effect 
to "the Pope's Bull against the comet." In discuss- 
ing the question, he used to liken the case to that of 
the boy who, when asked how many legs his calf 
would have if he called its tail a leg, replied, " Five," 
to which the prompt response was made that calling 
the tail a leg would not Tnake it a leg. 

But the right to emancipate by such an edict and 
the legal effect of it when issued were not the only 
questions with which the President was obliged to 
deal. The demand for it was wide-spread and 
rapidly extending in the Republican party. The 
popular current had become irresistible. The power 
to issue it was taken for granted. All doubts on the 
subject were consumed in the burning desire of the 
people, or forgotten in the travail of war. The 
anti-slavery element was becoming more and more 
impatient and impetuous. Opposition to that ele- 
ment now involved more serious consequences than 
offending the Border States. Mr. Lincoln feared 
that enlistments would cease, and that Congress 
would even refuse the necessary supplies to carry 
on the war, if he declined any longer to place it 
on a clearly defined antislavery basis. He finally 
yielded to this pressure, and in doing so he became 



LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAMATION 243 

the liberator of the slaves through the triumph of 
our arms which it insured. 

The authority to emancipate under the war power 
was therefore a side issue. It undoubtedly existed, 
but it could only be asserted over territory occupied 
by our armies. Each commanding general, as fast 
as our flag advanced, could have offered freedom to 
the slaves, as could the President himself. This was 
the view of Secretary Chase. A paper proclamation 
of freedom, as to States in the power of the enemy, 
could have no more validity than a paper blockade 
of their coast. Mr. Lincoln's proclamation did not 
apply to the Border States, which were loyal, and 
in which slavery was of course untouched. It did 
not pretend to operate upon the slaves in other 
large districts, in which it would have been effective 
at once, but studiously excluded them, while it ap- 
plied mainly to States and parts of States within the 
military occupation of the enemy, where it was neces- 
sarily void. 

But even if the proclamation could have given 
freedom to the slaves according to its scope, their 
permanent enfranchisement would not have been 
secured, because the status of slavery, as it existed 
under the local laws of the States prior to the war, 
would have remained the same after the re-establish- 
ment of peace. All emancipated slaves found in those 
States, or returning to them, would have been sub- 



2 44 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ject to slavery as before, for the simple reason that 
no military proclamation could operate to abolish 
their municipal laws. Nothing short of a constitu- 
tional amendment could at once give freedom to our 
black millions and make their re-enslavement impos- 
sible ; and "this," as Mr. Lincoln declared in ear- 
nestly urging its adoption, " is a king's-cure for all 
evils. It winds the whole thing up." All this is 
now attested by very high authorities on interna- 
tional and constitutional law ; and while it takes 
nothing from the glory of Mr. Lincoln as the great 
Emancipator, it shows how wisely he employed a 
splendid popular delusion in the salvation of his 
country. His proclamation had no present legal 
effect within territory not under the control of our 
arms ; but as an expression of the spirit of the peo- 
ple and the policy of the administration, it had be- 
come both a moral and a military necessity. The 
simple truth should now be told, and the honor, due 
to Mr. Lincoln, be placed upon its just foundation. 

But no picture of Abraham Lincoln which leaves 
out his private life can do him justice. Every linea- 
ment of his grand public career should have the set 
ting of his rare personal worth. In all the qualities 
that go to make up character, he was a thoroughly 
genuine man. His sense of justice was perfect and 
ever present. His integrity was second only to that 
of Washington, and his ambition as stainless. His 



LINCOLN AND THE PROCLAALATION 245 

sympathy for the unfortunate and the down-trodden 
earned for him the fitting title of " Father Abra- 
ham," and made him the idol of the common people. 
His devotion to wife and children was as abiding 
and unbounded as his love of country, and his hap- 
piest hours in the White House were spent in the 
companionship of his little boy " Tad," who used to 
ofambol about his knees. When death entered his 
household his sorrow was so consuming that it could 
only be measured by the singular depth and intensity 
of his love. He was human in the best and highest 
sense of the word. The record of too many of our 
famous men has been marred by personal vices ; but 
in him, were happily blended the qualities which 
adorn public station and dignify private life. 

GEORGE W. JULIAN. 



X 

SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 

I. 

I AM asked to give some reminiscences of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. I have so many and pleasant 
ones that I do not know where to begin unless at 
the beginning. 

I first saw Lincoln in 1840, making a speech in 
that memorable campaign, in the City Hall at Lowell; 
and not again till I was more than twenty-one years 
older, when I called on him at the White House to 
make acknowledgments for my appointment as ma- 
jor-general. When he handed me the commission, 
with some kindly words of compliment, I replied : " I 
do not know whether I ought to accept this. I re- 
ceived my orders to prepare my brigade to march to 
Washington while trying a cause to a jury. I stated 
the fact to the court and asked that the case might 
be continued, which was at once consented to, and I 
left to come here the second morning after, my busi- 
ness in utter confusion." He said : " I guess we both 
wish we were back trying cases," with a quizzical 
look upon his countenance. I said :" Besides, Mr. 



248 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

President, you may not be aware that I was the 
Breckinridge candidate for Governor in my State in 
the last campaign, and did all I could to prevent your 
election." " All the better," said he ; "I hope your 
example will bring many of the same sort with you." 
** But," I answered, " I do not know that I can sup- 
port the measures of your administration, Mr. Pres- 
ident." " I do not care whether you do or not," was 
his reply, " if you will fight for the country." " I 
will take the commission and loyally serve while I 
may, and bring it back to you when I can go with 
you no further." "That is frank ; but tell me where- 
in you think my administration wrong before you 
resign," said he. " Report to General Scott." 

I was assigned to the command of the Department 
of Virginia and North Carolina, and didn't see Mr. 
Lincoln again until after the capture of Hatteras, 
about the first of September, the news of which I 
was able to bring him in person, and he gave me 
leave to come home and look after my private busi- 
ness, as I had been relieved from command at Fort- 
ress Monroe by Brevet Lieutenant-General Wool. 

When I returned to Washington, Lincoln sent for 
me, and after greetings said : " General, you are out 
of a job ; now, if we only had the troops, I would like 
to have an expedition either against Mobile, New 
Orleans, or Galveston. Filling up regiments is going 
on very slowly." I said : " Mr. President, you gave 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS. 249 

me permission to tell you when I differed from the 
action of the administration." He said hastily : " You 
think we are wrong, do you ? " I said : " Yes, in this: 
You are making this too much a party war. That 
perhaps is not the fault of the administration but the 
result of political conditions. All the northern Gov- 
ernors are Republicans, and they of course appoint 
only their Republican friends as officers of regiments, 
and then the officers only recruit Republicans. Now 
this war cannot go on as a party war. You must get 
the Democrats in it, and there are thousands of patri- 
otic Democrats who would go into it if they could see 
any opportunity on equal terms with Republicans. 
Besides, it is not good politics. An election is coming 
on for Congressmen next year, and if you get all the 
Republicans sent out as soldiers and the Democrats 
not interested, I do not see but you will be beaten." 
He said: "There is meat in that. General," a favorite 
expression of his ; " what is your suggestion ? " I said : 
" Empower me to raise volunteers for the United 
States and select the officers, and I will go to New 
England and raise a division of 6,000 men in sixty 
days. If you will give me power to select the offi- 
cers I shall choose all Democrats. And if you put 
epaulets on their soldiers they will be as true to the 
country as I hope I am." He said: "Draw such an 
order as you want, but don't get me into any scrape 
with the Governors about the appointments of the 



2^0 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

officers if you can help it." The order was signed, 
the necessary funds were furnished the next day, 
and I started for New England; in ninety days I 
had 6,000 men enlisted, and was ordered to make 
preparations for an expedition to Ship Island, and 
the last portion of that expedition sailed on the 25th 
of February, 1862. 

All the New England Governors appointed Dem- 
ocratic officers of my selection save one. And this 
plan was followed by Governors of the Northern and 
Western States, which had not been done before in 
cases of civilians who had not been educated at 
West Point. Before I left Washington I called 
upon the President to take leave of him. He re- 
ceived me very cordially, and said : " Good-by, Gen- 
ral ; get into New Orleans if you can, and the back- 
bone of the rebellion will be broken. It is of more 
importance than anything else that can now be done; 
but don't interfere with the slavery question, as Fre- 
mont has done at St. Louis, and as your man Phelps 
has been doing on Ship Island." I said: " May I not 
arm the negroes?" He said: "Not yet; not yet." 
I said: "Jackson did." He answered : "But not to 
fight against their masters, but with them." I re- 
plied: " I will wait for the word or the necessity, Mr. 
President." " That's right ; God be with you." 

On my return from New Orleans the first of Jan- 
uary, 1863, I received from an officer of a revenue 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS. 251 

cutter in New York harbor a kindly note from Lin- 
coln asking me to come to Washington at once, with 
which I complied. After greetings, I said : " Why- 
was I relieved, Mr. President, from command at New 
Orleans?" "I do not know. General," was the an- 
swer ; " something about foreign affairs ; ask Seward. 
Do you want to go back again to the Mississippi 
River, General?" "No, Mr. President, not unless I 
can go back to New Orleans." He then produced a 
map which had been colored according to the pro- 
portion of white and slave population in the United 
States bordering on the Mississippi, and said : " See 
that black cloud, General. If it is not under some 
control soon, shall we not have trouble there ? 
Hadn't you better go down to Vicksburg?" " No," 
I said, "the black cloud you can control by coming 
up river as well as going down. I prefer to go home 
rather than to go anywhere else in the south-west 
than to New Orleans." He said : " I am sorry, Gen- 
eral, that you won't go. I can't send you to New 
Orleans without doing injustice to General Banks, 
who has not yet been tried there." "And I can't 
consistently with self-respect go anywhere else in the 
south-west from which I have just been relieved." 

Some months after this interview, being at Wash- 
ington on some business matter, I called to pay my 
respects to the President, and he said to me jocosely, 
" Well, General, you have had some time with noth- 



252 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ing to do but to look on ; any more criticisms ?" I 
said: "Yes, Mr. President, the bounties which are 
now being paid to new recruits cause very large de- 
sertions. Men desert and go home, and get the 
bounties and enHst in other regiments." " That is 
too true," he replied, "but how can we prevent it!" 
" By vigorously shooting every man who is caught 
as a deserter until it is found to be a dangerous busi- 
ness." A saddened, weary look came over his face 
which I had never seen before, and he slowly replied, 
" You may be right — probably are so ; but God help 
me, how can I have a butcher's day every Friday in 
the Army of the Potomac ? " The subject seemed 
to me to be too painful to him to be further pursued. 
In the later summer I was invited by the President 
to ride with him in the evening out to the Soldiers' 
Home, some two miles, a portion of the way being 
quite lonely. He had no guard — not even an orderly 
on the box. I said to him : " Is it known that you 
ride thus alone at night out to the Soldiers' Home ?" 
" Oh, yes," he answered, " when business detains me 
until night. I do go out earlier as a rule." I said : 
" I think you peril too much. We have passed a 
half dozen places where a well-directed bullet might 
have taken you off." "Oh," he replied, "assassina- 
tion of public officers is not an American crime. 
But perhaps it would relieve the anxiety of anxious 
friends which you express if I had a guard." The 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 



253 



next morning I spoke to Stanton about it, and he 
afterward insisted upon the President having a guard. 
In November, 1863, I received an order to pro- 
ceed to Fort Monroe and resume command of the 
Department of Virginia and North CaroHna, reliev- 
ing General Foster. £n route through Washing- 
ton I called upon the President and thanked him 
for this mark of confidence, and he said : " Yes, 
General, I believe in you, but not in shooting de- 
serters. As a commander of a department, you can 
now shoot them for yourself. But let me advise you 
not to amuse yourself by playing billiards with a 
rebel officer who is a prisoner of war." And it was 
thus that I learned one of the causes for General 
Foster's being relieved, which was for playing bill- 
iards with General Fitz Hugh Lee, then a prisoner 
of war. He then said : " I wish you would give all 
the attention you can to raising negro troops ; large 
numbers of negroes will probably come in to you. 
I believe you raised the first ones in New Orleans." 
I said : " Yes, Mr. President, except General Hunter 
at South Carolina, whose negro troops were dis- 
banded by your order." " Yes," he said, laughing, 
" Hunter is a very good fellow, but he was a little 
too previous in that." He then said good-naturedly: 
" Don't let Davis catch you, General ; he has put a 
price on your head; he will hang you sure." I an- 
swered: "That's a game two can play at, Mr. Presi- 



2r4 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

dent. If I ever catch him I will remember your 
scruples about capital punishment, and relieve you 
from any trouble with them in his case. He has 
outlawed me, and if I get hold of him I shall give 
him the law of the outlaw after a reasonable time to 
say his prayers." 

Lincoln visited my department twice while I was 
in command. He was personally a very brave man, 
and gave me the worst fright of my life. He came 
to my head-quarters and said : " General, I should 
like to ride along your lines and see them, and see 
the boys and how they are situated in camp." I 
said, " Very well, we will go after breakfast." I 
happened to have a very tall, easy-riding, pacing 
horse, and as the President was rather long legged, 
I tendered him the use of him while I rode beside 
him on a pony. He was dressed, as was his custom, 
in a black suit, a swallow-tail coat, and tall silk hat. 
As there rode on the other side of him at first Mr. 
Fox, the Secretary of the Navy, who was not more 
than five feet six inches in height, he stood out as 
a central figure of the group. Of course the staff 
officers and orderly were behind. When we got to 
the line of intrenchment, from which the line of rebel 
pickets was not more than 300 yards, he towered 
high above the works, and as we came to the several 
encampments the boys all turned out and cheered 
him lustily. Of course the enemy's attention was 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 



255 



wholly directed to this performance, and with the 
glass it could be plainly seen that the eyes of their 
officers were fastened upon Lincoln ; and a person- 
age riding down the lines cheered by the soldiers 
was a very unusual thing, so that the enemy must 
have known that he was there. Both Mr. Fox and 
myself said to him, " Let us ride on the side next to 
the enemy, Mr. President. You are in fair rifle-shot 
of them, and they may open fire; and they must 
know you, being the only person not in uniform, 
and the cheering of the troops directs their attention 
to you." "Oh, no," he said laughing, "the com- 
mander-in-chief of the army must not show any 
cowardice in the presence of his soldiers, whatever 
he may feel." And he insisted upon riding the 
whole six miles, which was about the length of my 
intrenchments, in that position, amusing himself at 
intervals, where there was nothing more attractive, 
in a sort of competitive examination of the com- 
manding-general in the science of engineering, 
much to the amusement of my engineer-in-chief, 
General Weitzel, who rode on my left, and who was 
kindly disposed to prompt me while the examination 
was going on, which attracted the attention of Mr. 
Lincoln, who said, " Hold on, Weitzel, I can't beat 
you, but I think I can beat Butler." 

I give this incident to show his utter unconcern 
under circumstances of very great peril, which kept 



256 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



the rest of us in a continued and quite painful 
anxiety. When we reached the left of the line we 
turned off toward the hospitals, which were quite 
extensive and kept in most admirable order by my 
medical director, Surgeon McCormack. The Presi- 
dent passed through all the wards, stopping and 
speaking very kindly to some of the poor fellows as 
they lay on their cots, and occasionally administer- 
ing a few words of commendation to the ward mas- 
ter. Sometimes when reaching a patient who showed 
much suffering the President's eyes would glisten 
with tears. The effect of his presence upon these 
sick men was wonderful, and his visit did great 
good, for there was no medicine which was equal to 
the cheerfulness which his visit so largely inspired. 

I accompanied him to Fort Monroe, and after- 
ward to Fort Wool, which is on the middle ground 
between the channels at Hampton Roads. As we 
sat at dinner, before we took the boat for Washing- 
ton, his mind seemed to be preoccupied, and he 
hardly did justice to the best dinner our resources 
could provide for him. I said, " I hope you are not 
unwell; you do not eat, Mr. President?" "I am 
well enough," was the reply; "but would to God this 
dinner or provisions like it were with our poor pris- 
oners in Andersonville. 

Not long afterward I had occasion to visit 
Washington, and I took with me the record of a 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 257 

court-martial wherein I had approved a sentence of 
death, and, upon reflection and re-examination of the 
record, had some doubt as to the entire sufficiency 
of the evidence. The order for execution at a 
future day had been promulgated, and although I 
might have commuted the sentence even then, yet 
I thought a pardon had better come from the Presi- 
dent, perhaps induced by the thought that a pardon 
from him would be no reflection upon the court, or 
intimation that the commading general ever had 
any occasion to change his mind upon such matter. 
I called upon the President, laid the record down 
before him, and in a few words explained it. He 
looked up and said, " You asking me to pardon 
some poor fellow ! Give me that pen." And in less 
time than I can tell it the pardon was ordered with- 
out further investigation. 

Indeed the President didn't keep his promise to 
allow me to execute whom I pleased as Commander 
of the Department, for he was not unfrequently 
sending down telegraphic orders to have some con- 
victed person sent to the Dry Tortugas. 

I have given only such incidents, free from all ob- 
servation of my own, as will tend to illustrate his 
character, and will content myself with one which 
develops another phase. 

It will be remembered that, like all Southern men, 
Mr. Lincoln did not understand the negro character. 



2^8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

He doubted very much whether the negro and the 
white man could possibly live together in any other 
condition than that of slavery ; and early after the 
emancipation proclamation he proposed to Congress 
to try the experiment of negro colonization in order 
to dispose of those negroes who should come within 
our lines. And, as I remember, speaking from 
memory only, attempted to make some provision 
at Demerara, through the agency of Senator Pom- 
eroy, for colonizing the negroes. The experiment 
was not fully carried out, the reasons for which are 
of no moment here. 

Lincoln was very much disturbed after the surren- 
der of Lee, and he had been to Richmond, upon the 
question of what would be the results of peace in 
the Southern States as affected by the contiguity of 
the white and black races. Shortly before the time, 
as I remember it, when Mr. Seward was thrown 
from his carriage and severely injured, being then in 
Washington, the President sent for the writer, and 
said, " General Butler, I am troubled about the 
negroes. We are soon to have peace. We have 
got some one hundred and odd thousand negroes 
who have been trained to arms. When peace shall 
come I fear lest these colored men shall organize 
themselves in the South, especially in the States 
where the negroes are in preponderance in numbers, 
into guerrilla parties, and we shall have down there 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 



259 



a warfare between the whites and the negroes. In 
the course of the reconstruction of the Government 
it will become a question of how the negro is to be 
disposed of. Would it not be possible to export 
them to some place, say Liberia, or South America, 
and organize them into communities to support 
themselves ? Now, General, I wish you would ex- 
amine the practicability of such exportation. Your 
organization of the flotilla which carried your army 
from Yorktown and Fort Monroe to City Point, and 
its success show that you understand such matters. 
Will you give this your attention, and, at as early a 
day as possible, report to me your views upon the 
subject." I replied, " Willingly," and bowed and 
retired. After some few days of examination, with 
the aid of statistics and calculations, of this topic, I 
repaired to the President's office in the morning, and 
said to him, " I have come to report to you on the 
question you have submitted to me, Mr. President, 
about the exportation of the negroes." He exhib- 
ited great interest, and said, " Well, what do you 
think of it ?" I said : " Mr. President, I assume that 
if the negro is to be sent away on shipboard you 
do not propose to enact the horrors of the mid- 
dle passage, but would give the negroes the air- 
space that the law provides for emigrants." He 
said, " Certainly." " Well, then, here are some 
calculations which will show you that if you under- 



2 6o REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

take to export all of the negroes — and I do not 
see how you can take one portion differently from 
another — negro children will be born faster than 
your whole naval and merchant vessels, if substan- 
tially all of them were devoted to that use, can carry 
them from the country ; especially as I believe that 
their increase will be much greater in a state of free- 
dom than of slavery, because the commingling of the 
two races does not tend to productiveness." He ex- 
amined my tables carefully for some considerable 
time, and then he looked up sadly and said : " Your 
deductions seem to be correct, General. But what 
can we do ? " I replied : " If I understand you, Mr. 
President, your theory is this : That the negro sol- 
diers we have enlisted will not return to the peaceful 
pursuits of laboring men, but will become a class of 
guerrillas and criminals. Now, while I do not see, 
under the Constitution, even with all the aid of Con- 
gress, how you can export a class of people who are 
citizens against their will, yet the Commander-in- 
Chief can dispose of soldiers quite arbitrarily. Now, 
then, we have large quantities of clothing to clothe 
them, large quantities of provision with which to 
supply them, and arms and everything necessary for 
them, even to spades and shovels, mules and wagons. 
Our war has shown that an army organization is the 
very best for digging up the soil and making in- 
trenchments. Witness the very many miles of in- 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 26 1 

trenchments that our soldiers have dugf out. I know 
of a concession of the United States of Colombia 
for a tract of thirty miles wide across the Isthmus 
of Panama for opening a ship canal. The enlist- 
ments of the negroes have all of them from two to 
three years to run. Why not send them all down 
there to dig the canal ? They will withstand the 
climate, and the work can be done with less cost 
to the United States in that way than in any 
other. If you choose, I will take command of the 
expedition. We will take our arms with us, and I 
need not suggest to you that we will need nobody 
sent down to guard us from the interference of any 
nation. We will proceed to cultivate the land and 
supply ourselves with all the fresh food that can be 
raised in the tropics, which will be all that will be 
needed, and your stores of provisions and supplies 
of clothing will furnish all the rest. Shall I work 
out the details of such an expedition for you, Mr. 
President ? " He reflected for some time, and then 
said : " There is meat In that suggestion. General 
Butler ; there is meat in that suggestion. Go and 
talk to Seward, and see what foreign complication 
there will be about it. Then think it over, get your 
figures made, and come to me again as soon as you 
can. If the plan has no other merit, it will rid the 
country of the colored soldiers." " Oh," said I, " it 
will do more than that. After we get down there 



262 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

we shall make a humble petition for you to send 
our wives and children to us, which you can't well 
refuse, and then you will have a United States col- 
ony in that region which will hold its own against all 
comers, and be contented and happy." "Yes, yes," 
said he, " that's it ; go and see Seward." 

I left the office, called upon the Secretary of 
State, who received me kindly, and explained in a 
few words what the President wanted. He said : 
" Yes, General, I know that the President is greatly 
worried upon this subject. He has spoken to me of 
it frequently, and yours may be a solution of it ; 
but to-day is my mail day. I am very much driven 
with what must be done to-day ; but I dine, as you 
know, at six o'clock. Come and take a family dinner 
with me, and afterward, over an indifferent cigar, 
we will talk this matter over fully." 

But that evening Secretary Seward, in his drive 
before dinner, was thrown from his carriage and 
severely injured, his jaw being broken, and he was 
confined to his bed until the assassination of Lincoln, 
and the attempted murder of himself by one of the 
confederates of Booth, so that the subject could 
never be again mentioned to Mr. Lincoln. 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 263 



II. 

There are two Incidents in regard to the nomi- 
nation of Vice-President in 1864 which for obvious 
reasons did not get into the newspapers of that day, 
but which bit of history may be of interest. 

It will be remembered that Mr. Chase was using 
his position as Secretary of the Treasury to aid In 
his candidature for the Presidency as early as the win- 
ter and spring of 1864. That was supposed to have 
created some coolness between him and Mr. Lincoln. 

Early in the spring of that year, a prominent 
Treasury official, who held his office directly from 
Mr. Chase, without the intervention of either the 
President or the Senate, but yet who controlled the 
disposition of more property and the avenues of 
making more fortunes than any other subordinate 
Treasury official, and who afterward held as large 
a controlling Influence with Mr. Seward, but In quite 
a different direction, came to the head-quarters of 
the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, 
ostensibly upon official business. 

After that was finished, the actual object of his 
visit was disclosed by a question, in substance as 
follows : 

" There has been some criticism. General, based 
on the assertion that Mr. Chase is using the powers 



264 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of his office to aid his Presidential aspirations. What 
do you think of Mr. Chase's action, assuming the re- 
ports true ? " 

" I see no objection to his using his office to ad- 
vance his Presidential aspirations, by every honor- 
able means, providing Lincoln will let him do it. It 
is none of my business, but I have for some time 
thought that Mr. Lincoln was more patient than I 
should have been, and if he does not object, nobody 
else has either the power or right to do so." 

" Then, General, you approve of Mr. Chase's 
course in this regard ? " 

" Yes, certainly; he has a right to use in a proper 
manner every means he has to further a laudable 
ambition." 

" As Chase is a Western man," said my visitor, 
" the Vice- Presidency had better come from the East. 
Who, General, do you think will make a good candi- 
date with Mr. Chase ? " 

" There are plenty of good men," I answered ; 
" but as Chase is very pronounced as an antislavery 
man and free-soiler, I think that General John A. 
Dix, of New York, ought to be selected to go on his 
ticket, and thus bring to his banner, both in conven- 
tion and at the polls, the war Democrats, of whom 
Mr. Dix claims to be a fair representative." 

" You are a war Democrat, General ; would you 
take that position with Mr. Chase yourself?" 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 



265 



" Are you specifically authorized by Mr. Chase to 
put to me that question, and report my answer to 
him for his consideration ?" 

"You may rest assured," was the reply, "that I 
am fully empowered by Mr. Chase to put the ques- 
tion, and he hopes the answer will be favorable." 

" Say, then, to Mr. Chase that I have no desire to 
be Vice-President. I am but forty-five years old ; I 
am in command of a fine army ; the closing campaign 
of the war is about beginning, and I hope to be able 
to do some further service for the country, and I 
should not, at my time of life, wish to be Vice-Presi- 
dent if I had no other position. Assure him that my 
determination in this regard has no connection with 
himself personally. I will not be a candidate for any 
elective office whatever until this war is over." 

" I will report your determination to Mr. Chase, 
and I can assure you that from what I know of his 
feelings he will hear it with regret." 

Within three weeks afterward a gentleman who 
stood very high in Mr. Lincoln's confidence came to 
me at Fort Monroe. This was after I had learned 
that Grant had allotted to me a not unimportant part 
in the coming campaign around Richmond, of the 
results of which I had the highest hope, and for 
which I had been laboring, and the story of which 
has not yet been told, but may be hereafter. 

The gentleman informed me that he came from 



266 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Mr. Lincoln ; this was said with directness, because 
the messenger and myself had been for a very con- 
siderable time in quite warm, friendly relations, and 
I owed much to him, which I can never repay save 
with gratitude. 

He said : " The President, as you know, intends 
to be a candidate for re-election, and as his friends 
indicate that Mr. Hamlin is no longer to be a candi- 
date for Vice-President, and as he is from New Ene- 
land, the President thinks that his place should be 
filled by some one from that section ; and aside from 
reasons of personal friendship which would make it 
pleasant to have you with him, he believes that, be- 
ing the first prominent Democrat who volunteered 
for the war, your candidature would add strength to 
the ticket, especially with the war Democrats, and 
he hopes that you will allow your friends to co-oper- 
ate with his to place you in that position." 

I answered : " Please say to Mr. Lincoln, that 
while I appreciate with the fullest sensibility this act 
of friendship and the compliment he pays me, yet I 
must decline. Tell him," I said laughingly, " with 
the prospects of the campaign, I would not quit the 
field to be Vice-President, even with himself as Pres- 
ident, unless he will give me bond with sureties, in 
the full sum of his four years' salary, that he will die 
or resign within three months after his inauguration. 
Ask him what he thinks I have done to deserve the 



SOME OF LINCOLN'S PROBLEMS 267 

punishment, at forty-six years of age, of being made 
to sit as presiding officer over the Senate, to listen 
for four years to debates, more or less stupid, in 
which I can take no part nor say a word, nor even be 
allowed a vote upon any subject which concerns the 
welfare of the country, except when my enemies 
might think my vote would injure me in the estima- 
tion of the people, and therefore, by some parlia- 
mentary trick, make a tie on such question, so I 
should be compelled to vote ; and then at the end of 
four years (as nowadays no Vice-President is ever 
elected President), and because of the dignity of the 
position I had held, not to be permitted to go on 
with my profession, and therefore with nothing left 
for me to do save to ornament my lot in the ceme- 
tery tastefully, and get into it gracefully and respect- 
ably, as a Vice-President should do. No, no, my 
friend ; tell the President I will do everything I can 
to aid in his election if nominated, and that I hope 
he will be, as until this war is finished there should 
be no change of administration." 

" I am sorry you won't go with us," replied my 
friend, " but I think you are sound in your judg- 
ment." 

I asked : " Is Chase making any headway in his 
candidature ? " 

" Yes, some ; but he is using the whole power of 
the Treasury to help himself." 



2 08 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"Well, that's the right thing for him to do." 

" Do you really think so ?" 

" Yes ; why ought not he to do it, if Lincoln lets 
him?" 

" How can Lincoln help letting him?" 

" By tipping him out. If I were Lincoln I should 
say to Mr. Chase, ' My Secretary of the Treasury, 
you know that I am a candidate for re-election, as I 
suppose it is proper for me to be. Now every one 
of my equals has a right to be a candidate against 
me, and every citizen of the United States is my 
equal who is not my subordinate. Now, if you de- 
sire to be a candidate, I will give you the fullest op- 
portunity to be one, by making you my equal and 
not my subordinate, and I will do that in any way 
that will be the most pleasant to you, but things can- 
not stay as they now are.' You see, I think it is Mr. 
Lincoln's and not Mr. Chase's fault that he is using 
the Treasury against Mr. Lincoln." 

" Right again ! " said my friend, " I will tell Mr. 
Lincoln every word you have said." 

What happened after is a matter of history. 

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. 



XI 

LINCOLN AND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 

THE first time I saw Mr. Lincoln was shortly 
after his inauguration. He had appointed Mr. 
Seward to be his Secretary of State, and some of the 
Republican leaders of New York, who had been in- 
strumental in preventing Mr. Seward's nomination 
to the Presidency and in securing that of Mr. Lin- 
coln, had begun to fear that they would be left out 
in the cold in the distribution of the offices. General 
James S. Wadsworth, George Opdyke, Lucius Rob- 
inson, T. B. Carroll, and Henry B. Stanton were 
among the number of these gentlemen. Their appre- 
hensions were somewhat mitigated by the fact that 
Mr. Chase, to whom we were all friendly, was Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. But, notwithstanding, they 
were afraid that the superior tact and pertinacity of 
Mr. Seward and Mr. Weed would get the upper hand, 
and that the power of the Federal Administration 
would be put into the control of the rival faction. 
Accordingly, several of them determined to go to 
Washington, and I was asked to go with them. 
I believe the appointment for our interview with 

i8 



270 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



the President was made through Mr. Chase ; but at 
any rate we all went up to the White House together, 
except Mr. Stanton, who stayed away because he was 
himself an applicant for office. 

Mr. Lincoln received us in the large room up-stairs 
in the east wing of the White House, where the Pres- 
ident had his working office, and stood up while 
General Wadsworth, who was our principal spokes- 
man, and Mr. Opdyke, stated what was desired. 
After the interview was begun a big Indianian, who 
was a messenger in attendance in the White House, 
came into the room and said to the President : 

" She wants you." 

" Yes, yes," said Mr. Lincoln without stirring. 

Soon afterward the messenger returned again, ex- 
claiming : 

" I say she wants you ! " 

The President was evidently annoyed, but instead 
of going out after the messenger he remarked to us : 

" One side shall not gobble up everything. Make 
out a list of the places and men you want, and I will 
endeavor to apply the rule of give and take." 

General Wadsworth answered : 

" Our party will not be able to remain in Wash- 
ington, but we will leave such a list with Mr. Carroll, 
and whatever he agrees to will be agreeable to us." 

Mr. Lincoln continued, " Let Mr. Carroll come in 
to-morrow and we will see what can be done." 



LINCOLN AND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 



271 



This is the substance of the interview, and what 
most impressed me was the evident fairness of the 
President. We all felt that he meant to do what was 
right and square in the matter. While he was not 
the man to promote factious quarrels and difficulties 
within his party, he did not intend to leave in the 
lurch the friends through whose exertions his nomi- 
nation and election had finally been brought about. 
At the same time he understood perfectly that we 
and our associates in the Republican body had not 
gone to Chicago for the purpose of nominating him, 
or of nominating any one in particular, but only to 
beat Mr. Seward, and to do the best that could be 
done as regards the selection of the candidate. 

Two years later I entered the service of the War 
Department, and from that time until the close of 
the rebellion I had constant opportunities of seeing 
Mr. Lincoln and of conversing with him in the 
cordial and unofficial manner which he always pre- 
ferred. Not that there was ever any lack of dignity 
in the man. Even in his freest moments one al- 
ways felt the presence of a will and an intellectual 
power which maintained the ascendency of the Pres- 
ident. He never posed or put on airs or attempted 
to make any particular impression ; but he was al- 
ways conscious of his own ideas and purposes, even 
in his most unreserved moments. 

In one of the interesting passages which occurred 



272 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

during this period, I was not myself either a prin- 
cipal actor or a personal witness, but I knew all 
about it. 

My friend and colleague, the Hon. Peter H. Wat- 
son, who was the earliest Assistant Secretary of War 
appointed by Mr. Stanton, had caught some quarter- 
masters in extensive frauds in forage furnished to the 
Army of the Potomac. The mode of the fraud con- 
sisted in a dishonest mixture of oats and Indian corn 
for the horses and mules of the army. By changing 
the proportions of the two sorts of grain, they were 
able to make a great difference in the cost of the 
bushel, and it was quite difficult to detect the cheat. 
However, Watson found it out and at once arrested 
the two officers who were most directly involved. 
They soon surrendered a large sum of money. If 
my memory serves me correctly, they returned 
$175,000 from the product of the swindle. They 
were men of some political importance about Lycom- 
ing, and eminent politicians took a hand in getting 
them out of the scrape. Among these the Hon. 
David Wilmot, then Senator of the United States 
and author of the famous Wilmot Proviso, was very 
active. He went to Mr. Lincoln and made such 
representations and appeals that finally the Presi- 
dent consented to go with him over to the War De- 
partment and see Watson in his office. Wilmot re- 
mained outside, and Mr. Lincoln went in to labor 



LINCOLN AND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 273 

with the Assistant Secretary. Watson eloquently 
described to him the nature of the fraud and the ex- 
tent to which it had already been developed by his 
partial investigation. The fact that $175,000 had 
been refunded by the guilty men was dwelt upon, 
and when the President urged the safety of the cause 
and the necessity of preserving united the powerful 
support which Pennsylvania was giving to the Ad- 
ministration in suppressing the rebellion, Watson 
answered : 

" Very well, Mr. President, if you wish to have 
these men released, all that is necessary is to give 
the order ; but I shall ask to have it in writing. In 
such a case as this it would not be safe for me to 
obey a verbal order ; and let me add that, if you do 
release them, the fact and the reason will necessarily 
become known to the public." 

Finally Mr. Lincoln took up his hat and went 
out, and when Wilmot, who was waiting in the cor- 
ridor, met him, he said : 

" I can't do anything with Watson ; he won't re- 
lease them." 

The reply which the Senator made to this remark 
cannot be printed here, but it did not affect the 
judgment of the President. The men were retained 
for a long time afterward. The fraud was fully in- 
vestigated, and future swindles of the kind were 
rendered impossible. If Watson could have had his 



2 74 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

way, the guilty parties — and there were some whose 
names never got to the public — would have been 
tried by court-martial and sternly dealt with. But 
all my reflections upon the subject since lead me to 
the conclusion that the moderation of the President 
was wiser than the unrelenting justice of the As- 
sistant Secretary would have been. 

Another incident connected with Pennsylvania re- 
curs to my memory which interested me greatly at 
that time as showing the habitual breadth of Mr. 
Lincoln's judgment and action. 

In the spring of 1864 some question arose about 
affairs in that State, and, Mr. Stanton being absent, 
Mr. Lincoln sent for me. I found Mr. Seward with 
him in the President's room. Mr. Lincoln entered 
at once upon the subject, and Mr. Seward said, " My 
advice is to send for Aleck McClure." After a few 
words between them on the subject, and the reiter- 
ated expression of Mr. Seward's opinion, Mr. Lin- 
coln said, " We will do it," and asked Mr. Seward 
to forward the necessary telegram. Then he turned 
to me, "What do you say, Dana?" "Well, sir," I 
replied, " McClure is very good, but I would sug- 
gest that it would be well to send for Wayne Mac- 
Veagh also." Mr. Seward thought this would not 
be necessary, and I took my leave with the impres- 
sion that my advice was not to be heeded. Next 
morning, however, MacVeagh came into my office. 



LINCOLN AND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 



275 



"Did Mr. Lincoln send for you?" I asked. "Yes, 
he did," was the answer, " and I think it will be all 
right ; " and so it was. The cause of anxiety proved 
to be more than half imaginary. 

The relations between Mr. Lincoln and the mem- 
bers of his Cabinet were always friendly and sincere 
on his part. He treated every one of them with un- 
varying kindness ; but though several of them were 
men of extraordinary force and self-assertion — this is 
true especially of Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, and Mr. 
Stanton — and though there was nothing of selfhood 
or domination in his manner toward them, it was 
always plain that he was the master and they the 
subordinates. They constantly had to yield to his 
will, and if he ever yielded to theirs it was because 
they convinced him that the course they advised was 
judicious and appropriate. I fancied during the 
whole time of my intimate Intercourse with him and 
with them that he was always prepared to receive the 
resignation of any one of them ; and at the same 
time I do not recollect a single occasion when either 
of the members of the Cabinet had got his mind ready 
to quit his post from any feeling of dissatisfaction 
with the orders or the conduct of the President. 

In the beginning of May, Grant moved the Army 
of the Potomac across the Rappahannock and fought 
the battle of the Wilderness. For two days we had 
no authentic news in Washington, and both Mr. 



2^6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln and the Secretary of War were very much 
troubled about it. One night at about ten o'clock I 
was^ent for to the War Department, and on reaching 
the office I found the President and the Secretary 
together. 

" We are greatly disturbed in mind," said Mr. 
Lincoln, "because Grant has been fighting two days 
and we are not getting any authentic account of what 
has happened since he moved. We have concluded 
to send you down there. How soon will you be 
ready to start ? " 

" I will be ready," I said, " in half an hour, and will 
get off just as soon as a train and an escort can be 
got ready at Alexandria." 

"Very good," said the President; "go then, and 
God bless you." 

I at once made the necessary preparations and gave 
orders for a train from Alexandria to the Rappahan- 
nock. At the appointed time, just before midnight, 
I was on board the cars in Maryland Avenue, which 
were to take me and my horse to Alexandria, when 
an orderly rode up in haste to say that the President 
wanted to see me at the War Department. Riding 
there as fast as I could I found the President still 
there. 

" Since you went away," said he, " I have been 
feeling very unhappy about it. I don't like to send 
you down there. We hear that Jeb Stewart's cavalry 



LINCOLN AND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 277 

is riding all over the region between the Rappahan- 
nock and the Rapidan, and I don't want to expose 
you to the danger you will have to meet before you 
can reach Grant." 

" Mr. Lincoln," I said, " I have got a first-rate 
horse, and twenty cavalrymen are in readiness at 
Alexandria. If we meet a small force of Stewart's 
people, we can fight, and if they are too many, they 
will have to have mighty good horses to catch us." 

"But are you not concerned about it at all?" 
said he. 

" No, sir," said I, " don't feel any hesitation on 
my account. Besides it is getting late, and I want 
to get down to the Rappahannock by daylight." 

*' All right," said he ; "if you feel that way, I won't 
keep you any longer. Good-night, and good-by." 

Another side of this remarkable character was 
illustrated on the evening of election day in Novem- 
ber. The political struggle had been most intense, 
and the interest taken in it, both in the White House 
and in the War Department, had been almost pain- 
ful. All the power and influence of the War De- 
partment, then something enormous from the vast 
expenditure and extensive relations of the war, had 
been employed to secure the re-election of Mr. 
Lincoln ; and after the arduous toil of the canvass 
there was necessarily a great suspense of feeling 
until the result of the voting should be ascertained. 



278 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I went over to the War Department about half-past 
eight in the evening and found the President and 
Mr. Stanton together in the Secretary's office. 
General Eckert, who then had charge of the tele- 
graph department of the War Office, was coming in 
continually with telegrams containing election re- 
turns. Mr. Stanton would read them and the 
President would look at them and comment upon 
them. Presently there came a lull in the returns, 
and Mr. Lincoln called me up to a place by his side. 

" Dana," said he, " have you ever read any of the 
writings of Petroleum V. Nasby ? " "No, sir," I 
said, " I have only looked at some of them, and they 
seemed to me quite funny." 

" Well," said he, " let me read you a specimen," 
and, pulling out a thin yellow-covered pamphlet from 
his breast-pocket, he began to read aloud. Mr. 
Stanton viewed this proceeding with great im- 
patience, as I could see, but Mr. Lincoln paid no 
attention to that. He would read a page or a story, 
pause to con a new election telegram, and then open 
the book again and go ahead with a new passage. 
Finally Mr. Chase came in and presently Mr. White- 
law Reid, and then the reading was interrupted. 
Mr. Stanton went to the door and beckoned me into 
the next room. I shall never forget the fire of his 
indignation at what seemed to him to be mere 
nonsense. The idea that when the safety of the 



LINCOLN AND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 279 

Republic was thus at issue, when the control of an 
empire was to be determined by a few figures brought 
in by the telegraph, the leader, the man most deeply 
concerned, not merely for himself but for his country, 
could turn aside to read such balderdash and to laugh 
at such frivolous jests, was to his mind something 
most repugnant and damnable. He could not un- 
derstand, apparently, that it was by the relief which 
these jests afforded to the strain of mind under 
which Lincoln had so long been living and to the 
natural gloom of a melancholy and desponding tem- 
perament — this was Mr. Lincoln's prevailing charac- 
teristic — that the safety and sanity of his intelligence 
was maintained and preserved. 

Another interesting incident occurs to me. A spy 
whom we employed to report to us the proceedings 
of the Confederate Government and its agents, and 
who passed continually between Richmond and St. 
Catherines, reporting at the War Department upon 
the way, had come in from Canada and had put into 
my hands an important dispatch from Mr. Clement 
C. Clay, Jr., addressed to Mr. Benjamin. Of course 
the seal was broken and the paper read immediately. 
It showed unequivocally that the Confederate agents 
in Canada were making use of that country as a 
starting point for warlike raids which were to be 
directed against frontier towns like St. Albans in 
Vermont. Mr. Stanton thought it important that 



2 8o REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

this dispatch should be retained as a ground of re- 
clamation to be addressed to the British Govern- 
ment. It was on a Sunday that it arrived, and he 
was confined to his house by a cold. At his direc- 
tions I went over to the President and made an 
appointment with him to be at the Secretary's office 
after church. At the appointed time he was there, 
and I read the dispatch to them. Mr. Stanton 
stated the reasons why it should be retained, and 
before deciding the question Mr. Lincoln turned to 
me, saying : 

"Well, Dana?" 

I observed to them that this was a very important 
channel of communication, and that if we stopped 
such a dispatch as this it was at the risk of never ob- 
taining any more information through that means. 

" Oh," said the President, " I think you can man- 
age that. Capture the messenger, take the dispatch 
from him by force, put him in prison, and then let 
him escape. If he has made Benjamin and Clay be- 
lieve his lies so far, he won't have any difficulty in 
telling them new ones that will answer for this case." 

This direction was obeyed. The paper was sealed 
up again and was delivered to its bearer. General 
Augur, who commanded the District, was directed to 
look for a Confederate messenger at such a place on 
the road south that evening. The man was arrested, 
brought to the War Department, searched, the paper 



LINCOLN AND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 281 

found upon him and identified, and he was committed 
to the Old Capitol Prison. He made his escape 
about a week later, being fired upon by the guard. 
A large reward for his capture was advertised in va- 
rious papers East and West, and when he reached 
St. Catherines with his arm in a sling, wounded by a 
bullet which had passed through it, his story was be- 
lieved by Messrs. Clay and Jacob Thompson, or, at 
any rate, if they had any doubts upon the subject, 
they were not strong enough to prevent his carrying 
their messages afterward. 

The last time I saw Mr. Lincoln to speak with him 
was in the afternoon of the day of his murder. The 
same Jacob Thompson was the subject of our con- 
versation. I had received a report from the Provost 
Marshal of Portland, Maine, saying that Mr. Thomp- 
son was to be in that town that night for the purpose 
of taking the steamer for Liverpool ; and what orders 
had the Department to give ? I carried the telegram 
to Mr. Stanton. He said promptly, "Arrest him;" 
but as I was leaving his room, he called me back, 
adding, " You had better take it over to the Presi- 
dent." It was now between four and five o'clock in 
the afternoon, and business at the White House was 
completed for the day. I found Mr. Lincoln with 
his coat off in a closet attached to his office washing 
his hands. " Halloo, Dana," said he, as I opened 
the door, "what is it now?" "Well, sir," I said. 



282 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

" here is the Provost Marshal of Portland, who re- 
ports that Jacob Thompson is to be in that town to- 
night, and inquires what orders we have to give." 
" What does Stanton say ? " he asked. " Arrest him," 
I replied. " Well," he continued, drawling his words, 
" I rather guess not. When you have an elephant 
on hand, and he wants to run away, better let him 
run. 

This answer I carried back to the War Depart- 
ment, and, accordingly, no reply was sent to the 
Provost Marshal. That night Mr. Lincoln was shot, 
and in the room adjoining the small chamber In which 
he lay unconscious and breathing heavily, Mr. Stan- 
ton, the only member of the Administration who 
seemed to retain his self-possession and undiminished 
energy, gave all the orders for hours that seemed 
necessary to carry on the government. I left him 
at about two o'clock in the morning and went home to 
sleep. But at five o'clock Colonel Pelouse knocked 
at my front door. Opening the window, I asked, 
" What is it ? " " Mr. Dana," said he, " Mr. Lincoln 
is dead, and Mr. Stanton directs you to arrest Jacob 
Thompson." 

The order was sent to Portland, but Thompson 
did not come there. Some years afterward he told 
me that he had thought it safer to go to England by 
way of Halifax. 

CHARLES A. DANA. 



XII 

TWO STORIES OF LINCOLN 

New York, Oct. 26, 1885. 
Dear Sir : 

In the first draft of his book, Gen. Grant had fixed 
upon quite a large number of anecdotes which were 
afterward omitted. Among the number I find the 
following, for which, as will be seen, he was indebted 
to President Lincoln. 

Respectfully, 

F. D. GRANT. 
Allen Thorndike Rice, Esq. 



I. 

JUST after receiving my commission as lieu- 
tenant-general, the President called me aside 
to speak to me privately. After a brief reference 
to the military situation, he said he thought he could 
illustrate what he wanted to say by a story, which 
he related as follows : " At one time there was a 
great war among the animals, and one side had great 
difficulty in getting a commander who had sufficient 



284 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

confidence in himself. Finally, they found a monkey, 
by the name of Jocko, who said that he thought 
he could command their army if his tail could be 
made a little longer. So they got more tail and 
spliced it od to his caudal appendage. He looked 
at it admiringly, and then thought he ought to have 
a little more still. This was added, and again he 
called for more. The splicing process was repeated 
many times, until they had coiled Jocko's tail around 
the room, filling all the space. Still he called for 
more tail, and, there being no other place to coil 
it, they began wrapping it around his shoulders. He 
continued his call for more, and they kept on wind- 
ing the additional tail about him until its weight 
broke him down." 

I saw the point, and, rising from my chair, re- 
plied : " Mr. President, I will not call for more as- 
sistance unless I find it impossible to do with what 
I already have." 

II. 

Upon one occasion, when the President was at my 
head-quarters at City Point, I took him to see the 
work that had been done on the Dutch Gap Canal. 
After taking him around and showing him all the 
points of interest, explaining how, in blowing up one 
portion of the work that was being excavated, the 
explosion had thrown the material back into, and 



TWO STORIES OF LINCOLN 285 

filled up, a part already completed, he turned to me 
and said : " Grant, do you know what this reminds 
me of? Out in Springfield, Illinois, there was a 

blacksmith named . One day, when he did not 

have much to do, he took a piece of soft iron that 
had been in his shop for some time, and for which he 
had no special use, and, starting up his fire, began to 
heat it. When he got it hot he carried it to the anvil 
and began to hammer it, rather thinking he would 
weld it into an agricultural implement. He pounded 
away for some time until he got it fashioned into 
some shape, when he discovered that the iron would 
not hold out to complete the implement he had in 
mind. He then put it back into the forge, heated it 
up again, and recommenced hammering, with an ill- 
defined notion that he would make a claw hammer, 
but after a time he came to the conclusion that there 
was more iron there than was needed to form a 
hammer. Again he heated it, and thought he would 
make an axe. After hammering and welding it into 
shape, knocking the oxydized iron off in flakes, he 
concluded there was not enough of the iron left to 
make an axe that would be of any use. He was now 
getting tired and a little disgusted at the result of 
his various essays. So he filled his forge full of coal, 
and, after placing the iron in the center of the heap, 
took the bellows and worked up a tremendous blast, 
bringing the iron to a white heat. Then with his 



2 86 REMimSCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tongs he lifted it from the bed of coals, and thrust- 
ing it into a tub of water near by, exclaimed with an 
oath, ' Well, if I can't make anything else of you, I 
will make a fizzle, anyhow.' " 

I replied that I was afraid that was about what 
we had done with the Dutch Gap Canal. 

ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



XIII 
LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART 

ONE morning, early in the spring of 1863, a 
middle-aged lady appeared at the garrison 
gate of Fort Mc Henry, and applied for permission 
to visit head-quarters. 

This was some time after the battle fought at 
Nashville, Tennessee, where our troops were vic- 
torious under the command of General Franklin. 

The lady's request was sent up to head-quarters 
by the officer of the guard. At that time, I was 
chief of staff to General W. W. Morris, of the 
regular army, then commanding the defenses of 
Baltimore. Representing my chief, who was absent, 
I granted the lady's request. 

Her appearance, as she entered head-quarters, in- 
spired every one with the deepest interest, for, with 
the calm self-possession and distinguished bearing 
of an accomplished lady, there was an expression of 
profound sadness in her face which appealed touch- 
ingly to every heart. 

She told me her story with modest dignity. She 
was a widow, she said, and resided near Nashville, 



2 88 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Tennessee, but, although a native of that State, she 
had no sympathy with the rebeUion. She had an 
only son. At the outbreak of the war he was a 
student in a Southern college. Without her knowl- 
edge or consent he enlisted in a rebel regiment, and 
was severely wounded at the battle of Nashville, 
taken prisoner, and carried North. 

The day after the battle, to her great astonish- 
ment and grief, she first heard of these facts. She 
at once applied to the commanding general for leave 
to go through the lines and follow her son. Leave 
was orranted. She first found her son at Louisville, 
then followed him to Wheeling, West Virginia, and 
thence to Fort McHenry, Baltimore. Here he was 
placed in the garrison hospital. 

The mother desired the privilege of seeing her 
son in order to learn his present condition, and to 
furnish him any little comforts he might need which 
were not supplied under army regulations. 

Only a short time before, an order had been re- 
ceived from the War Department prohibiting all 
intercourse between citizens and prisoners of wan 

I expressed my regret that, under this order, I must 
deny her request, but assured her that she should be 
fully informed as to her son's condition, and have 
permission to send him anything for his comfort that 
the post surgeon should approve of. 

The post surgeon was sent for, but said that he 



LINCOLN'S KLVDNESS OF HEART 289 

had not personally examined the case of this special 
prisoner, but added that she might go with him to 
his office in the hospital, and he would make in- 
quiries. She went, and learned that her son's wound 
had been aggravated by his journey from Wheeling, 
but that with rest and careful treatment he was cer- 
tain to recover. 

To remove all doubts from her mind as to the 
comforts furnished patients who were our prison- 
ers of war, the surgeon said to her, as she arose 
to go : 

" Let me show you, madam, one or two of our 
prisoners' wards, so that you may see for yourself 
how our government provides for the sick and 
wounded of the enemy who are captured." 

Gladly the mother accepted the invitation. Hardly 
had they entered, when the lady, descrying her boy 
through a half-open door in an adjoining room, 
rushed from the surgeon's side. Rapidly following 
her, he saw "a scene," which, he said, "was too 
sacred to interrupt." The mother was on her knees 
by the cot of her pale and emaciated boy, exclaim- 
ing, as she clasped him to her bosom : 

" Oh ! my blessed child ! I mus^ see you if I die 
for it!" 

The kind-hearted surgeon turned away and left 
the mother and son undisturbed. 

Soon the lady returned to the waiting officer, her 



290 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



face suffused with tears, but beaming with hope and 
joy, as she said : 

" Oh, sir! my blessed boy is sorry he entered the 
army, and wishes to give his parole and leave the 
Confederate service forever. Will the authorities 
permit him to do this ? Can I go again to head- 
quarters ? " 

They came together to head-quarters. She ap- 
proached me with a look of mingled fear and exulta- 
tion that greatly puzzled me ; but she recounted all 
that had occurred at the hospital with perfect frank- 
ness, and said : 

" If I have done wrong, punish me ; but I could 
not help it." 

Of course I did not utter a word of censure, but 
in answer to her request to have her son paroled, I 
told her that this power was vested in the President 
or Secretary of War alone, and advised her to go to 
Washington and appeal to Secretary Stanton. 

The next day she went, taking with her a letter 
of introduction to the Commissary-General of Pris- 
oners. 

In two days she returned to Fort Henry, disap- 
pointed and crushed in heart at the treatment she 
had received from Secretary Stanton. She told me 
her story. 

" I took your note of introduction to General 
Hoffman," she said, " and he kindly spoke to the 



LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART 29 1 

Secretary of my purpose in visiting Washington, 
and afterward he went with me and introduced me 
at the War Department. 

"As we entered the Secretary's office, Mr. Stan- 
ton was writing at his desk. General Hoffman said : 

" ' Mr. Secretary, this is the lady I spoke to you 
about. She wishes to consult you about releasing 
her son, who is a prisoner of war, wounded, in the 
hospital at Fort Henry.' The General then turned 
and left the room. I was standing near the door of 
the office. Mr. Stanton never looked at me nor 
spoke. After a minute or two the Secretary turned 
round in his chair, and abruptly, in a severe tone, 
said : 

" * So, you are the woman who has a son prisoner 
of war in Fort McHenry.' " 

" ' I am so unfortunate,' I said. 

" The Secretary then answered in a still louder 
and sterner tone of voice, leaving me standing all 
the time : 

" * I have nothing to say to you, and no time to 
waste on you. If you have raised up sons to rebel 
against the best government under the sun, you and 
they must take the consequences.' 

" I attempted to say to him," continued the lady, 
"that my son was a mere boy, scarcely seventeen 
years old, and had entered the Confederate service 
without my knowledge or approval, but before I had 



292 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



uttered five words he fairly yelled at me, as if in an 
insane rage : 

" ' I don't want to hear a word from you. I've no 
time to waste on you. I want you to go at once. 
I'll do nothing for you.' 

" I left," she said, " and am thankful I got out of 
Washington alive. Oh ! why are such men intrusted 
with power ? " 

And she sobbed as if her heart would break. 

After a brief silence, I asked her if she could go 
to Washington again ? 

" What ! to see that man ? No, sir ! Not for all 
Washington," she exclaimed, before she had given a 
moment for explanation. 

After ascertaining that the necessary action would 
not be hampered by poverty — that she had means 
enough to pay traveling expenses — I drew up, next 
day, a paper addressed to the President, concisely 
stating the case, and asking a parole for the boy. 
She signed it ; the surgeon certified it. She was ad- 
vised to call on the President, and given directions 
how and when to get an interview. 

After an absence of three days, she returned to 
Fort Mc Henry. As she approached the desk of the 
officer commanding, tears glistened in her eyes, but 
they were tears of gratitude. Her whole counte- 
nance was luminous with joy. Handing to me the 
same official envelope which had inclosed the docu- 



LINCOLN'S KLNDNESS OF HEART 293 

ment prepared for her to present to the President, 
she pointed to an order written in pencil upon it, 
and exclaimed with deep emotion : 

" My boy is free ! Thank God for such a Presi- 
dent ! He is the soul of goodness and honor !" 

The order was as follows : 



E Mansion, i 
13, 1863. ) 



Executive Mansion, 
March 



" To the Commandant at Fort Mc Henry : 

" General : — You will deliver to the bearer, Mrs. 
Winston, her son, now held a prisoner of war in 
Fort McHenry, and permit her to take him where 
she will, upon his taking the proper parole never 
again to take up arms against the United States. 

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN." 

I asked her how the President received her when 
she met him ? 

"With the kindness of a brother," she replied. 
" When I was ushered into his presence he was 
alone. He immediately arose, and, pointing to a 
chair by his side, said : 

" ' Take this seat, madam, and then tell me what I 
can do for you.' 

" I took the envelope, and asked him if he would 
read the inclosures." 

" ' Certainly,' he said, and he proceeded to read the 
statements I had signed very deliberately. When he 



294 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



had finished reading it he turned to me, and, with 
emotion, he said : 

" ' Are you, madam, the unhappy mother of this 
wounded and imprisoned son ? ' 

" * I am,' I said. 

" ' And do you believe he will honor his parole if 
I permit him to take it and go with you ? ' 

" * I am ready, Mr. President, to peril my personal 
liberty upon it,' I replied. 

" ' You shall have your boy, my dear madam,* he 
said. ' To take him from the ranks of rebellion and 
give him to a loyal mother is a better investment for 
this government than to give him up to its deadly 
enemies.' 

" Then, taking the envelope, he wrote with his 
own pencil the order which you see upon it. As he 
handed it to me he said : 

" * There ! Give that to the commanding officer 
of Fort McHenry, and you will be permitted to take 
your son with you where you will ; and God grant 
he may prove a great blessing to you and an honor 
to his country.'" 

It need hardly be added, that the young prisoner 
was soon removed from the garrison ; and, under the 
tender nursing of this heroic and devoted mother, 
was able, after a few months, to resume his studies 
in one of our Northern colleges. A beautiful and 
most touching letter, subsequently received at Fort 



LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART 295 

McHenry from Mrs. Winston, expressed, in touch- 
ing terms, her gratitude and that of her son to all 
who had rendered her aid in that hour of her great 
trial. 

The National Cemetery at Gettysburg was dedi- 
cated on the 17th of November, 1863. Shortly be- 
fore the dedication was to take place the President 
sent an invitation to my chief, General W. W. 
Morris, and his staff, to join him at Baltimore and 
accompany him on his special train to Gettysburg. 
General Morris was sick at the time, and requested 
me, as his chief of staff, to represent him on that 
occasion. The General was suffering from one of 
the troubles which tried the patience of Job. 

On the day appointed, therefore, I presented my- 
self, with two other members of the staff, to Presi- 
dent Lincoln, on his arrival at Baltimore, and offered 
the apology of my chief for his absence. 

After cordially greeting us and directing us to 
make ourselves comfortable, the President, with 
quizzical expression, turned to Montgomery Blair 
(then Postmaster-General), and said : 

" Blair, did you ever know that fright has some- 
times proved a sure cure for boils ?" 

" No, Mr. President. How is that?" 

'* I'll tell you. Not long ago, when Colonel 

, with his cavalry, was at the front, and the 

Rebs were making things rather lively for us, the 



296 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

colonel was ordered out on a reconnaissance. He 
was troubled at the time with a big boil where 
it made horseback riding decidedly uncomfortable. 
He hadn't gone more than two or three miles 
when he declared he couldn't stand it any longer, 
and dismounted and ordered the troops forward 
without him. He had just settled down to enjoy 
his relief from change of position when he was 
startled by the rapid reports of pistols and the 
helter-skelter approach of his troops in full retreat 
before a yelling rebel force. He forgot everything 
but the yells, sprang into his saddle, and made capi- 
tal time over fences and ditches till safe within the 
lines. The pain from his boil was gone, and the 
boil too, and the colonel swore that there was no 
cure for boils so sure as fright from rebel yells, and 
that the secession had rendered to loyalty one valu- 
able service at any rate." 

During the ride to Gettysburg the President 
placed every one who approached him at his ease, 
relating numerous stories, some of them laughable, 
and others of a character that deeply touched the 
hearts of his listeners. 

I remember well his reply to a gentleman who 
stated that his *' only son fell on * Little Round 
Top ' at Gettysburg, and I am going to look at 
the spot." 

President Lincoln replied : 



LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART 29 



" You have been called upon to make a terrible 
sacrifice for the Union, and a visit to that spot, I fear, 
will open your wounds afresh. But oh ! my dear 
sir, if we had reached the end of such sacrifices, and 
had nothing left for us to do but to place garlands 
on the graves of those who have already fallen, we 
could give thanks even amidst our tears ; but when 
I think of the sacrifices of life yet to be offered and 
the hearts and homes yet to be made desolate be- 
fore this dreadful war, so wickedly forced upon us, 
is over, my heart is like lead within me, and I feel, 
at times, like hiding in deep darkness." 

At one of the stopping-places of the train, a very 
beautiful little child, having a bouquet of rose-buds 
in her hand, was lifted up to an open window of 
the President's car. With a childish lisp she said : 
" Flowrth for the President ! " 

The President stepped to the window, took the 
rose-buds, bent down and kissed the child, saying : 

"You're a sweet little rose-bud yourself. I hope 
your life will open into perpetual beauty and good- 
ness." 

We had taken with us from Fort Mc Henry the 
Second United States Artillery band, one of the 
oldest and finest of the army. 

After our arrival at Gettysburg, two gentlemen, 
who represented themselves as members of the 
Committee of Arrangements, applied to me for this 



2q8 reminiscences of ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

band to serenade the President and the several Gov- 
ernors of States who had arrived. 

The band was placed at their disposal and the 
serenades given. But, presently, information was 
given me that, for some reason. Governor Seymour, 
of New York, had been omitted in the serenades. 
After ascertaining that the information was correct, 
I resolved that this omission should be corrected, 
whether it had resulted from a mistake or a delib- 
erate intention, and that the New York troops at 
least, who were a majority of those present, and 
were from " the defenses of Baltimore," should have 
an opportunity to join in a serenade of their beloved 
Governor, the soldiers' friend. 

Accordingly, arrangements having been made for 
the presence of the band, and liberty having been 
given to the members of the several commands 
from " the defenses of Baltimore " to be present, at 
about ten o'clock in the evening a crowd of thou- 
sands of citizens and soldiers had assembled in 
front of and around the Governor's quarters. 

The night was clear and delightful, and the moon- 
light rested in beauty on the town and the sur- 
rounding scenery. The band seemed inspired by 
the scene and the occasion, and played exquisitely 
a number of their sweetest and most appropriate airs. 

At length, at a pause in the music, the Governor 
stepped out on the balcony. Instantly cheers burst 



LINCOLN'S KLWDNESS OF HEART 299 

from the vast multitude, as hearty, long-continued, 
and soul-stirring as ever found utterance from en- 
thusiastic hearts. 

When silence was restored, the Governor, evi- 
dently laboring under deep emotion, commenced an 
address which held enchained his great audience 
from beginning to end. I had listened to the elo- 
quence of Governor Seymour on other occasions, but 
now he seemed to rise into the empyrean of the 
inspired orator. Never were sentiments of loftier 
patriotism uttered. 

And when, with touching pathos, the Governor 
addressed the citizens and soldiers before him, and 
told them of the deep and tender anxiety felt for 
them by loved ones they had left behind, and how 
their prayers and the prayers of millions of loyal 
hearts were constantly ascending to Heaven for 
their success and safe return ; and then spoke of the 
thousands of cheeks still wet with falling tears for 
husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, now sleeping in 
the graves on yonder hill-side, I doubt if a dry eye 
could have been found in that vast throng of en- 
thralled listeners. And when he closed, for a mo- 
ment there was profound silence, and not till he 
turned to leave the balcony did the pent-up feelings 
of the deeply affected crowd break forth ; when in 
the wildest cheers, and cries of " God bless Gov- 
ernor Seymour," and " Long live the Union," the 



300 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



thousands of hearts, " both by tumultuous rapture 
and tender sympathy swayed," found such utterance 
as has rarely been awarded to the eloquence of man. 

President Lincoln, on learning the next morning 
of the occasion of the demonstration late the night 
before, said to me : 

" I am glad Governor Seymour was specially 
honored. He deserves it. No man has shown 
greater interest and promptness in his co-operation 
with us. The New York soldiers may well admire 
and honor him." 

The ceremonies of the dedication were imposing 
and most interesting. The great procession, civic 
and military, the splendid music, the impressive re- 
ligious exercises, the great oration by Edward 
Everett (the last public effort of his life), the dedi- 
cation, of the ground chosen, in an address by Presi- 
dent Lincoln, of beauty and pathos never surpassed 
— all amidst the scenes where thousands but re- 
cently had freely offered up their lives for the life of 
the Republic — made the day one to be remembered 
as long as our Union shall last. 

Around the platform, on which the addresses were 
delivered, the military were formed in hollow square 
several ranks deep. Inside of this square, and but 
a few feet from the platform, I had my position, and 
thus enjoyed the best opportunities to see and hear. 

The oration of Mr. Everett, although, perhaps. 



LINCOLN'S KINDXESS OF HEART 30! 

not equal in rhetorical beauty and lofty eloquence 
to some of his previous efforts, was rich in historical 
instruction and glowing with patriotic sentiment, and 
was received with great applause. 

At length, and in the name of the American Re- 
public, the President came forward formally to dedi- 
cate the place, which had drank so freely of the life- 
blood of her sons, as their peaceful resting-place till 
time should be no more, pledging the fidelity and 
honor and power of the government to its preser- 
vation for this sacred purpose while that govern- 
ment should last. 

A description of the President's famous address is 
needless ; it has already become a classic ; it is im- 
possible to conceive of anything more beautiful and 
appropriate for the occasion. 

But I may say a word of the appearance of the 
orator. 

President Lincoln was so put together physically 
that, to him, gracefulness of movement was an im- 
possibility. But his awkwardness was lost sight of 
in the interest which the expression of his face and 
what he said awakened. 

On this occasion he came out before the vast as- 
sembly, and stepped slowly to the front of the plat- 
form, with his hands clasped before him, his natural 
sadness of expression deepened, his head bent for- 
ward, and his eyes cast to the ground. 



902 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

In this attitude he stood for a few seconds, silent, 
as if communing with his own thoughts ; and when 
he began to speak, and throughout his entire ad- 
dress, his manner indicated no consciousness of the 
presence of tens of thousands hanging on his lips, 
but rather of one who, like the prophet of old, was 
overmastered by some unseen spirit of the scene, 
and passively gave utterance to the memories, the 
feelings, the counsels and the prophecies with which 
he was inspired. 

In his whole appearance, as well as in his wonder- 
ful utterances, there was such evidence of a wisdom 
and purity and benevolence and moral grandeur, 
higher and beyond the reach of ordinary men, that 
the great assembly listened almost awe-struck as to 
a voice from the divine oracle. 

I was still on duty in "the defenses of Balti- 
more " when the Presidential campaign of 1864 oc- 
curred. I had been a life-long Democrat, and I 
favored the election of General McClellan, the can- 
didate of my party. 

One evening in September, 1864, I was invited by 
a few friends to go with them to a Democratic meet- 
ing, and listen to a distinguished orator who was to 
advocate the claims of McClellan. As I could not 
well refuse, I agreed to go for a few minutes only. 
To my surprise and annoyance, I was called on by 
the audience for a speech, and the calls were so per- 



LI. \ COIN'S KINDNESS OF HEART 303 

sistent that I was placed in a most embarrassing 
position. Forced to say something, I contented my- 
self with a brief expression of my high regard for 
McClellan as a soldier, and a statement of my in- 
tention to vote for him. I made no reference of Mr. 
Lincoln, and soon left the hall. 

Next day an order came from Secretary Stanton 
directing me to be mustered out of the service. No 
reason was assigned, nor opportunity given for de- 
fense. As I was and had always been an unwavering 
Union man, as I had a brother and three sons in the 
military service of the Union, and as I had learned 
that my action at the meeting when reported to 
Secretary Stanton had made him very angry and 
caused him to utter severe threats against me, I 
determined to go, and did go, to Washington to 
know the reason of this attempt to disgrace me. As 
no other pretext could be given for such action, I 
resolved to appeal to the President. 

I gave my papers setting forth these facts into the 
hands of a personal friend, a Republican member 
of Congress, with the request that he would ask 
Mr. Lincoln whether the revocation of my commis- 
sion was by his order, knowledge or consent. He 
did so. 

The President immediately replied : " I know noth- 
ing about it. Of course Stanton does a thousand 
things in his official character which I can know 



04 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



nothing about, and which it is not necessary that I 
should know anything about." 

Having heard the case, he then added : " Well, 
that's no reason. Andrews has as good a right to 
hold on to his Democracy, if he chooses, as Stanton 
had to throw his overboard. If I should muster out 
all my generals who avow themselves Democrats there 
would be a sad thinning out of commanding ofificers 
in the army. No ! " he continued, "when the military 
duties of a soldier are fully and faithfully performed, 
he can manage his politics in his own way ; we've 
no more to do with them than with his religion. Tell 
this officer he can return to his post, and if there is 
no other or better reason for the order of Stanton 
than the one he suspects, it shall do him no harm ; 
the commission he holds will remain as good as new. 
Supporting General McClellan for the Presidency 
is no violation of army regulations, and as a question 
of taste of choosing between him and me, well, I'm 
the longest, but he's better looking." 

And so I resumed my service, and was never 
afterward molested by the Secretary of War. 

E. W. ANDREWS. 



XIV 
LINCOLN AND NEW YORK 

MY relations with President Lincoln were cor- 
dial. I was a member of the House of 
Representatives when he entered upon the duties 
of President, and remained in the House until 
December, 1864, when I resigned my seat for the 
office of Governor of New York. 

In the summer and fall of 1864 — during the 
Presidential canvass — there was great anxiety in 
respect to the decision of the people at the ballot- 
box, as well as to our varying success on the 
field of arms. The war for the Union had pros- 
pered slowly. Determining results had not been 
realized. Its frightful proportions were more ap- 
parent as the days increased. Patriotic people 
became restless. Many of our Republican friends 
thought the war was not prosecuted with sufficient 
vigor and wisdom. Party spirit was embittered by 
conflicting sympathies, and severe criticisms were 
ventured touching the conduct of the war. The 
Democratic party had in terms even declared it to 
be " a failure." To add intensity to the anxiety on 



2o6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Republican side at this condition of affairs, the 
government of New York State was in Democratic 
hands. Our principal commercial port, our great 
city and center of money and exchange, was within 
the boundary of the State, and State and local au- 
thorities, or the practices under them, might at any 
time seriously embarrass the General Government 
in the farther prosecution of the war. Hence, New 
York was a stake of mighty import. Each party 
was certain to exert itself to the utmost. And, even 
beyond the electoral vote of the State as a possible 
factor in merely deciding who should be President, 
the case was surrounded with the gravest concern, 
especially for those in charge of the government, 
and whose war purposes and policy were clearly 
defined. 

On the 2 2d day of August, I received a telegram 
from Mr. John G. Nicolay, Private Secretary, saying 
that the President desired to see me. I arrived in 
Washington next day. The President, speaking to 
me said, in language as nearly as I can remember : 
"You are to be nominated by our folks for Gov- 
ernor of your State. Seymour of course will be the 
Democratic nominee. You will have a hard fight. 
I am very desirous that you should win the battle. 
New York should be on our side by honest posses- 
sion. There is some trouble among our folks over 
there, which we must try and manage. Or, rather, 



LINCOLN AND NEW YORK 307 

there Is one man who may give us trouble, because 
of his indifference, if in no other way. He has great 
influence, and his feelings may be reflected in many 
of his friends. We must have his counsel and co- 
operation if possible. This, in one sense, is more 
important to you than to me, I think, for I should 
rather expect to get on without New York, but you 
can't. But in a larger sense than what is merely 
personal to myself, I am anxious for New York, and 
we must put our heads together and see if the mat- 
ter can't be fixed." 

In a word, Mr. Thurlow Weed was dissatisfied 
with the disposition of the federal patronage in the 
city of New York. Especially he felt that Mr. 
Simeon Draper, Collector of the Port, and Mr. 
Rufus F. Andrews, Surveyor, were unfriendly to 
him, and that he had no voice in those places of 
influence and power. Patronage had a welcome in 
the public service then. Removals and appoint- 
ments were made upon the judgment or caprice of 
those at the head. The Republican convention in 
New York to place a candidate for Governor before 
the people was to come off early in September. 

As a result of this consultation with Mr. Lincoln, 
in the evening of the day after my arrival In Wash- 
ington, Mr. Nicolay and I left for New York, and In 
Room No. II, Astor House, next forenoon, I had a 
talk with Mr. Weed. I need not speak of the par- 



oo8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ticulars of that conference. It is enough to say that 
Mr. Nicolay returned to Washington with the resig- 
nation of Mr. Rufus F. Andrews, and that Mr. 
Abram Wakeman — zealous friend of Mr. Weed — 
at once became his successor as Surveyor. From 
that time forward Mr. Weed was earnest and help- 
ful in the canvass. The small majority in New 
York in November — less than 7,000 for the Repub- 
lican electoral ticket — justified the anxiety of Mr. 
Lincoln, and serves to illustrate his political sagac- 
ity and tact. He was always politician as well as 
statesman. 

Mr. Lincoln was not a successful impromptu 
speaker. He required a little time for thought and 
arrangement of the thing to be said. I give an in- 
stance in point. After the election to which I have 
referred, just before I resigned my seat in Congress 
to enter upon my official duties as Governor at Al- 
bany, New Yorkers and others in Washington thought 
to honor me with a serenade. I was the guest of 
ex-Mayor Bowen. After the music and speaking 
usual upon such occasions, it was proposed to call 
on the President. I accompanied the committee in 
charge of the proceedings, followed by bands and a 
thousand people. It was full nine o'clock when we 
reached the Mansion. The President was taken by 
surprise, and said he "didn't know just what he could 
say to satisfy the crowd and himself." Going from 



IJXCOLN AND NEW YORK 309 

the library room down the stairs to the portico front, 
he asked me to say a few words first, and give him if 
I could " a peg to hang on." It was just when Gen- 
eral Sherman was en route from Atlanta to the sea, 
and we had no definite news as to his safety or where- 
abouts. After one or two sentences, rather common- 
place, the President farther said he had no war news 
other than was known to all, and he supposed his 
ignorance in regard to General Sherman was the 
ignorance of all ; that " we all knew where Sherman 
went in, but none of us knew where he would come 
out." This last remark was in the peculiarly quaint, 
happy manner of Mr. Lincoln, and created great ap- 
plause. He immediately withdrew, saying he "had 
raised a good laugh and it was a good time for him 
to quit." In all he did not speak more than two 
minutes, and, as he afterward told me, because he 
had no time to think of much to say. 

A few days after I succeeded to the office of Gov- 
ernor I was led to an investigation in regard to the 
quota of men for New York for the field, under the 
President's call for 300,000 of December 19th just 
previous. My search led me to doubt the correctness 
of the assignment of quotas to several localities, and, 
as between several localities or districts, it was, to my 
mind, unequal and unjust. I do not mean that it was 
so intended. It was a difficult and perplexing mat- 
ter ; differences in respect to methods were liable to 



3IO 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM IINCOLN 



arise and errors were likely to creep in. And, more- 
over, the total number, 61,000, for the State seemed 
to me clearly excessive. Thus impressed, accom- 
panied by General George W. Palmer of my military 
staff, I went to Washington on the 21st of January. 
My interviews with the Secretary of War and the 
Provost-marshal General did not end favorably to 
my views. The Secretary of War was more than 
firm. He was indeed rigid in adhering to the assign- 
ment for New York as then made. Not doubting 
the right and justice of my claim for reduction and 
re-assignment as to the districts, I called on Mr. 
Lincoln. He gave me time and listened attentively 
and patiently to all I had to say. At the close he 
remarked, " I guess you have the best of it, and I 
must advise Stanton and Fry to ease up a little." He 
wrote upon a card to Mr. Stanton, and gave it to me 
to carry to him, as follows : 



The Governor has a pretty good case. I 
feel sure he is more than half right. We 
don't want him to feel cross and we in the 
wrong. Try and fix it with him. 

A. LINCOLN. 



I write from the card, which the gruff and great Stan- 
ton allowed me to retain. 



LINCOLN AND NEW YORK 



311 



Neither he nor General Fry could go over the 
matter with a view to the further precise adjustment 
during my sojourn. The Legislature of my State 
was in session and I could not tarry. I will only add 
that the quota as finally arranged was fully 9,000 less, 
and the equality between the several districts was in 
a great measure restored. It was mainly satisfactory 
to the people. And the State had the proud honor, 
as theretofore, of unhesitatingly and heroically meet- 
ing this further demand upon her patriotism. 

Turning back out of the order of events to the 
fall and early winter of 1861, General McClellan, 
with an army which some authorities place at full 
1 50,000 men, was then in camp and quarters around 
about Washington. It was said to be intended to 
move " on to Richmond," or at least toward the 
Confederate forces, some time before the rains of 
the winter months should set in. Congress convened 
the first week in December. The army seemed to 
be in good condition but impatient. The roads 
were exceptionally dry and good for the season of 
the year. The loyal people, through the press and 
otherwise, were calling for a forward movement, and 
the representatives of the people in Congress were 
ready to open upon General McClellan with wrath- 
ful eloquence because of the delay. One, two, and 
more weeks passed and the army did not move. It 
was felt that something must be done to avert the 



312 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



threatened heated discussion at Washington ; some- 
thing to prevent further dissatisfaction and distrust 
among the soldiers and the people. Galusha A. Grow 
was Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

About the i8th, the Speaker, the Hon. Schuyler 
Colfax, and myself called on Mr. Lincoln to plan 
with him if need be, or better to say, to have his 
judgment as to a way of escape from the danger 
of an aroused hostile public sentiment which then 
seemed imminent. 

Mr. Lincoln was keenly alive to the situation. 
The character and opinions of this rugged-featured 
and intellectually great man always enforced respect 
and confidence whatever the pleasantry of his man- 
ner. He said Providence, with favoring sky and 
earth, seemed to beckon the army on, but General 
McClellan, he supposed, knew his business and had 
his reasons for disregarding these hints of Provi- 
dence. "And," said Mr. Lincoln, "as we have got 
to stand by the General, I think a good way to do 
it may be for Congress to take a recess for several 
weeks, and by the time you get together again, if 
McClellan is not off with the army. Providence is 
very likely to step in with hard roads and force us to 
say, ' the army can't move.* " He continued : " You 
know Dickens said of a certain man that if he would 
always follow his nose he would never stick fast in 
the mud. Well, when the rains set in it will be im- 



LINCOLN AND NEW YORK 313 

possible for even our eager and gallant soldiers to 
keep their noses so high that their feet will not 
stick in the clay mud of Old Virginia." I have given 
very nearly the words of Mr. Lincoln. His felicity 
in stating a case and his good sense always im- 
pressed me, and my memory loses nothing in vivid- 
ness with the lapse of years. 

The Congress was adjourned for the holiday 
period quite as early and quite as long as usual, not- 
withstanding pressing public affairs were requiring 
the attention of the law-making power. When it re- 
assembled — January 5th, as I remember — the rain had 
come, the Virginia roads were well-nigh impassable, 
and the army was still in and around Washington. 
Verily, to move then was to stick fast in the mud, 
and the Congress and the country reluctantly be- 
came reconciled, in a measure, to the situation. 

R. E. FENTON. 



XV 
LINCOLN AND THE COLORED TROOPS 

I DO not know more about Mr. Lincoln than is 
known by countless thousands of Americans 
who have met the man. But I am quite willing 
to give my recollections of him and the impressions 
made by him upon my mind as to his character. 

My first interview with him was in the summer of 
1863, soon after the Confederate States had declared 
their purpose to treat colored soldiers as insurgents, 
and their purpose not to treat any such soldiers as 
prisoners of war subject to exchange like other sol- 
diers. My visit to Mr. Lincoln was in reference to 
this threat of the Confederate States. I was at the 
time engaged in raising colored troops, and I desired 
some assurances from President Lincoln that such 
troops should be treated as soldiers of the United 
States, and when taken prisoners exchanged like 
other soldiers ; that when any of them were hanged 
or enslaved the President should retaliate. I was 
introduced to Mr. Lincoln on this occasion by Sen- 
ator Pomeroy, of Kansas ; I met him at the Execu- 
tive Mansion. 



oj6 reminiscences of ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I was somewhat troubled with the thought of 
meeting one so august and high in authority, espe- 
cially as I had never been in the White House before, 
and had never spoken to a President of the United 
States before. But my embarrassment soon vanished 
when I met the face of Mr. Lincoln. When I en- 
tered he was seated in a low chair, surrounded by a 
multitude of books and papers, his feet and legs 
were extended in front of his chair. On my approach 
he slowly drew his feet in from the different parts 
of the room into which they had strayed, and he 
began to rise, and continued to rise until he looked 
down upon me, and extended his hand and gave me 
a welcome. I began, with some hesitation, to tell 
him who I was and what I had been doing, but 
he soon stopped me, saying in a sharp, cordial 
voice : 

" You need not tell me who you are, Mr. Douglass, 
I know who you are. Mr. Sewell has told me all 
about you." 

He then invited me to take a seat beside him. 
Not wishing to occupy his time and attention, see- 
ing that he was busy, I stated to him the object of 
my call at once. I said : 

" Mr. Lincoln, I am recruiting colored troops. I 
have assisted in fitting up two regiments in Massa- 
chusetts, and am now at work in the same way in 
Pennsylvania, and have come to say this to you, sir, 



LINCOLN AND THE COLORED TROOPS 317 

if you wish to make this branch of the service suc- 
cessful you must do four things : 

" First — You must give colored soldiers the same 
pay that you give white soldiers. 

" Second — You must compel the Confederate 
States to treat colored soldiers, when taken pris- 
oners, as prisoners of war. 

" Third — When any colored man or soldier per- 
forms brave, meritorious exploits in the field, you 
must enable me to say to those that I recruit that 
they will be promoted for such service, precisely as 
white men are promoted for similar service. 

" Fourth — In case any colored soldiers are mur- 
dered in cold blood and taken prisoners, you should 
retaliate in kind." 

To this little speech Mr. Lincoln listened with 
earnest attention and w^ith very apparent sympathy, 
and replied to each point in his own peculiar, 
forcible way. First he spoke of the opposition gen- 
erally to employing negroes as soldiers at all, of the 
prejudice against the race, and of the advantage to 
colored people that would result from their being 
employed as soldiers in defense of their country. 
He regarded such an employment as an experiment, 
and spoke of the advantage it would be to the 
colored race if the experiment should succeed. He 
said that he had difficulty in getting colored men 
into the United States uniform ; that when the pur- 



3i8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pose was fixed to employ them as soldiers, several 
different uniforms were proposed for them, and 
that it was something gained when it was finally 
determined to clothe them like other soldiers. 

Now, as to the pay, we had to make some conces- 
sion to prejudice. There were threats that if we 
made soldiers of them at all white men would not 
enlist, would not fight beside them. Besides, it was 
not believed that a negro could make a good soldier, 
as good a soldier as a white man, and hence it was 
thought that he should not have the same pay as a 
white man. But said he, 

" I assure you, Mr. Douglass, that in the end they 
shall have the same pay as white soldiers." 

As to the exchange and general treatment of col- 
ored soldiers when taken prisoners of war, he should 
insist to their being entitled to all privileges of such 
prisoners. Mr. Lincoln admitted the justice of my 
demand for the promotion of colored soldiers for 
good conduct in the field, but on the matter of re- 
taliation he differed from me entirely. I shall never 
forget the benignant expression of his face, the tear- 
ful look of his eye and the quiver in his voice, when 
he deprecated a resort to retaliatory measures. 

" Once begun," said he, " I do not know where 
such a measure would stop." 

He said he could not take men out and kill them 
\n cold blood for what was done by others. If he 



LINCOLN AND THE COLORED TROOPS 319 

could get hold of the persons who were guilty of 
killing the colored prisoners in cold blood, the case 
would be different, but he could not kill the innocent 
for the guilty. 

Before leaving Mr. Lincoln, Senator Pomeroy 
said : 

" Mr. President, Mr. Stanton is going to make 
Douglass Adjutant-General to General Thomas, and 
is going to send him down the Mississippi to re- 
cruit. 

Mr. Lincoln said in answer to this : 

" I will sign any commission that Mr. Stanton will 
give Mr. Douglass." 

At this point we parted. 

I met Mr. Lincoln several times after this inter- 
view. 

I was once invited by him to take tea with him at 
the Soldiers' Home. On one occasion, while visiting 
him at the White House, he showed me a letter he 
was writing to Horace Greeley in reply to some of 
Greeley's criticisms against protracting the war. He 
seemed to feel very keenly the reproaches heaped 
upon him for not bringing the war to a speedy con- 
clusion ; said he was charged with making it an Abo- 
lition war instead of a war for the Union, and ex- 
pressed his desire to end the war as soon as possible. 
While I was talking with him Governor Buckingham 
sent in his card, and I was amused by his telling the 



320 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



messenger, as well as by the way he expressed it, to 
" tell Governor Buckingham to wait, I want to have 
a long talk with my friend Douglass." 

He used those words. I said : " Mr. Lincoln, I 
will retire." "Oh, no, no, you shall not, I want 
Governor Buckingham to wait," and he did wait for 
at least a half hour. When he came in I was intro- 
duced by Mr. Lincoln to Governor Buckingham, and 
the Governor did not seem to take it amiss at all 
that he had been required to wait. 

I was present at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, 
the 4th of March, 1865. I felt then that there was 
murder in the air, and I kept close to his carriage on 
the way to the Capitol, for I felt that I might see 
him fall that day. It was a vague presentiment. 

At that time the Confederate cause was on its last 
legs, as it were, and there was deep feeling. I could 
feel it in the atmosphere here. I did not know ex- 
actly what it was, but I just felt as if he might be 
shot on his way to the Capitol. I cannot refer to 
any incident, in fact, to any expression that I heard, 
it was simply a presentiment that Lincoln might fall 
that day. I got right in front of the east portico of 
the Capitol, listened to his inaugural address, and 
witnessed his being sworn in by Chief Justice Chase. 
When he came on the steps he was accompanied 
by Vice-President Johnson. In looking out in the 
crowd he saw me standing near by, and I could see 



LINCOLN AND THE COLORED TROOPS 321 

he was polntini^ me out to Andrew Johnson. Mr. 
Johnson, without knowing perhaps that I saw the 
movement, looked quite annoyed that his attention 
should be called in that direction. So I got a peep 
into his soul. As soon as he saw me looking at 
him, suddenly he assumed rather an amicable ex- 
pression of countenance. I felt that, whatever else 
the man might be, he was no friend to my people. 

I heard Mr. Lincoln deliver this wonderful ad- 
dress. It was very short ; but he answered all the 
objections raised to his prolonging the war in one 
sentence — it was a remarkable sentence. 

" Fondly do we hope, profoundly do we pray, 
that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass 
away, yet if God wills it continue until all the 
wealth piled up by two hundred years of bondage 
shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood 
drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one 
drawn by the sword, we must still say, as was said 
three thousand years ago, the judgmients of the 
Lord are true and righteous altogether." 

For the first time in my life, and I suppose the 
first time in any colored man's life, I attended the 
reception of President Lincoln on the evening of 
the inauguration. As I approached the door I was 
seized by two policemen and forbidden to enter. I 
said to them that they were mistaken entirely in 
what they were doing, that if Mr. Lincoln knew that 



322 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



I was at the door he would order my admission, and 
I bolted in by them.. On the inside I was taken 
charge of by two other policemen, to be conducted 
as I supposed to the President, but instead of that 
they were conducting me out the window on a 
plank. 

" Oh," said I, " this will not do, gentlemen," and 
as a gentleman was passing in I said to him, "Just 
say to Mr. Lincoln that Fred. Douglass is at the 
door." 

He rushed in to President Lincoln, and almost in 
less than a half a minute I was invited into the 
East Room of the White House. A perfect sea of 
beauty and elegance, too, it w-as. The ladies were 
in very fine attire, and Mrs. Lincoln was standing 
there. I could not have been more than ten feet 
from him when Mr. Lincoln saw me ; his counte- 
nance lighted up, and he said in a voice which was 
heard all around : " Here comes my friend Doug- 
lass." As I approached him he reached out his 
hand, gave me a cordial shake, and said : " Doug- 
lass, I saw you in the crowd to-day listening to my 
inaugural address. There is no man's opinion that 
I value more than yours : what do you think of it ? " 
I said : " Mr. Lincoln, I cannot stop here to talk 
with you, as there are thousands waiting to shake 
you by the hand ; " but he said again : " What did 
you think of it?" I said: "Mr. Lincoln, it was a 



LINCOLN AND THE COLORED TROOPS 32^ 

sacred effort," and then I walked off. " I am glad 
you liked it," he said. That was the last time I saw 
him to speak with him. 

In all my interviews with Mr. Lincoln I was 
impressed with his entire freedom from popular 
prejudice against the colored race. He was the first 
great man that I talked with in the United States 
freely, who in no single instance reminded me of the 
difference between himself and myself, of the differ- 
ence of color, and I thought that all the more re- 
markable because he came from a State where there 
were black laws. I account partially for his kind- 
ness to me because of the similarity with which I 
had fought my way up, we both starting at the low- 
est round of the ladder. I must say this for Mr. 
Lincoln, that whenever I met him he was in a very 
serious mood. I heard of those stories he used to 
tell, but he never told me a story. I remember of 
one of Mr. Lincoln's stories being told me by Gen- 
eral Grant. I had called on him, and he said : 
" Douglass, stay here, I want to tell you about a lit- 
tle incident. When I came to Washington first, 
one of the first things that Lincoln said to me was, 
' Grant, have you ever read the book by Orpheus C. 
Kerr?' 'Well, no, I never did,' said L Mr. Lin- 
coln said : ' You ought to read it, it is a very inter- 
esting book. I have had a good deal of satisfaction 
reading that book. There is one poem there that 



^2 4 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

describes a meeting of the animals. The substance 
of it being that the animals and a dragon, or some 
dreadful thing, was near by and had to be conquered, 
and it was a question as to who would undertake the 
job. By and by a monkey stepped forward and pro- 
posed to do the work up. The monkey said he 
thought he could do it if he could get an inch or 
two more put on his tail. The assemblage voted 
him a few inches more to his tail, and he went out 
and tried his hand. He was unsuccessful and re- 
turned, stating that he wanted a few more inches put 
on his tail. The request was granted, and he went 
again. His second effort was a failure. He asked 
that more inches be put on his tail and he would try 
a third time.' At last," said General Grant, "it got 
through my head what Lincoln was aiming at, as ap- 
plying to my wanting more men, and finally I said : 
' Mr. Lincoln, I don't want any more inches put on 
my tail.'" It was a hit at McClellan, and General 
Grant told me the story with a good deal of gusto. 
I got the book afterward and read the lines of Or- 
pheus C. Kerr. 

There was one thing concerning Lincoln that I 
was impressed with, and that was that a statement 
of his was an argument more convincing than any 
amount of logic. He had a happy faculty of stating 
a proposition, of stating it so that it needed no argu- 
ment. It was a rough kind of reasoning, but it went 



LINCOLN AND THE COLORED TROOPS 325 

right to the point. Then, too, there was another 
feeHng that I had with reference to him, and that 
was that while I felt in his presence I was in the 
presence of a very great man, as great as the great- 
est, I felt as though I could go and put my hand on 
him if I wanted to, to put my hand on his shoulder. 
Of course I did not do it, but I felt that I could. I 
felt as though I was in the presence of a big brother, 
and that there was safety in his atmosphere. 

It was often said during the war that Mrs. Lincoln 
did not sympathize fully with her husband in his 
anti-slavery feeling, but I never believed this con- 
cerning her, and have good reason for being con- 
firmed in my impression of her by the fact that, when 
Mr. Lincoln died and she was about leaving the 
White House, she selected his favorite walking cane 
and said : " I know of no one that would appreciate 
this more than Fred. Douglass." She sent it to me 
at Rochester, and I have it in my house to-day, and 
expect to keep it there as long as I live. 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 



XVI 

LINCOLN AND THE NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS 

THE election of Abraham Lincoln as President 
was very acceptable to the older Washington 
correspondents. They remembered him well in the 
XXXth Congress, when, as the Representative from 
the Sangamon district, he was the only Whig in 
the Illinois delegation, then but seven in number. 
In the drawing for seats his name had been one of 
the last called, and he had been obliged to content 
himself with a desk in the very outer row, about 
midway on the Speaker's left hand, where he had on 
one side of him Harmon S. Conger, of New York, 
and on the other John Gayle, of Alabama. There 
he used to sit patiently listening to the eloquence of 
John Quincy Adams, Robert Toombs, David M. 
Barringer, Andrew Johnson, and others whose ge- 
nius and learning adorned the old Hall, and to the 
verbose platitudes of those less gifted. His own 
voice was never heard unless when he voted " aye " 
or " nay." 

During the Christmas holidays Mr. Lincoln found 
his way into the small room used as the post-office 



32S REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM UNCO IN 

of the House, where a few jovial racontetirs used to 
meet almost every morning, after the mail had been 
distributed into the members' boxes, to exchange 
such new stories as any of them might have ac- 
quired since they had last met. After modestly 
standing at the door for several days, Mr. Lincoln 
was " reminded " of a story, and by New Year's he 
was recognized as the champion story-teller of the 
Capitol. His favorite seat was at the left of the 
open fire-place, tilted back in his chair, with his long 
legs reaching over to the chimney jamb. He never 
told a story twice, but appeared to have an endless 
repertoire of them, always ready, like the successive 
charges in a magazine gun, and always pertinently 
adapted to some passing event. 

It was refreshing to us correspondents, compelled 
as we were to listen to so much that was prosy and 
tedious, to hear this bright specimen of Western 
genius tell his inimitable stories, especially his rem- 
iniscences of the Black Hawk War, in which he 
had commanded a company, which was mustered 
into the United States service by Jefferson Davis, 
then second lieutenant of dragoons. 

I remember his narrating his first experience in 
drilling his company. He was marching with a front 
of over twenty men across a field, when he desired 
to pass through a gateway into the next inclosure. 

*' I could not for the life of me," said he, " remem- 



LINCOLN AND NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS 329 

ber the proper word of command for getting my 
company endwise so that it could get through the 
gate, so as we came near the gate I shouted : ' This 
company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will 
fall in again on the other side of the gate ! ' " 

When the laugh which the description of these 
novel tactics caused had subsided, Mr. Lincoln 
added : 

" And I sometimes think here, that gentlemen in 
yonder who get into a tight place in debate, would 
like to dismiss the House until the next day and 
then take a fair start." 

Mr. Lincoln used to narrate his exploits in wrest- 
ling during this campaign, when he was regarded as 
the champion of Northern Illinois. One day the 
champion of the Southern companies in the expedi- 
tion challenged him. 

" He was at least two inches taller than I was," 
said Mr. Lincoln, " and somewhat heavier, but I 
reckoned that I was the most wiry, and soon after I 
had tackled him I gave him a hug, lifted him off the 
ground, and threw him flat on his back. That set- 
tled his hash." 

Soon after the Presidential campaign of 1848 was 
opened, Alfred Iverson, a Democratic Representative 
from Georgia, made a political speech, in which he ac- 
cused the Whigs of having deserted their financial and 
tariff principles, and of having "taken shelter under 



330 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



the military coat-tails of General Taylor," then their 
Presidential candidate. This gave Mr. Lincoln as 
a text for his reply, "Military coat tails." He had 
written the heads of what he had intended to say on 
a few pages of foolscap paper, which he placed on 
a friend's desk, bordering on an alley-way, which he 
had obtained permission to speak from. At first he 
followed his notes, but, as he warmed up, he left his 
desk and his notes, to stride down the alley toward 
the Speaker's chair, holding his left hand behind him 
so that he could now and then shake the tails of his 
own rusty, black broadcloth dress-coat, while he 
earnestly gesticulated with his long right arm, shak- 
ing the bony index finger at the Democrats on the 
other side of the chamber. Occasionally, as he would 
complete a sentence amid shouts of laughter, he 
would return up the alley to his desk, consult his 
notes, take a sip of water, and start off again. 

Toward the close of his speech, Mr. Lincoln poured 
a torrent of ridicule upon the military reputation of 
General Cass, and then alluded to his own exploits 
as a soldier in the Black Hawk War, "where," he 
continued, "I fought, bled, and came away. If Gen- 
eral Cass saw any live, fighting Indians at the battle 
of the Thames, where he served as aide-de-camp to 
General Harrison, it was more than I did; but I had 
a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, 
and although I never fainted from the loss of blood, 



LINCOLN AND NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS 



32>^ 



I can truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. 
Speaker," added Mr. Lincoln, "if I should ever con- 
clude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may 
suppose there is of black-cockade Federalism about 
me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their 
candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not 
make fun of me as they have of General Cass by at- 
tempting to write me into a military hero." 

Mr. Lincoln received hearty congratulations at the 
close, many Democrats joining the Whigs in their 
complimentary comments. The speech was pro- 
nounced by the older members of the House almost 
equal to the celebrated defence of General Harrison 
by Tom Corwin, in reply to an attack made on him 
by a Mr. Crary of Ohio. The two speeches are 
equally characterized by vigorous argument, mirth- 
provoking irony and original wit. One Democrat, 
however (who had been nicknamed " Sausage " 
Sawyer, from having moved the expulsion of "Rich- 
elieu " Robinson from the reporter's gallery for a 
facetious account of his lunching behind the Speak- 
er's chair on bologna sausage), didn't enthuse at all. 

" Sawyer," asked an Eastern Representative, " how 
did you like the lanky Illinoisian's speech ? Very 
able, wasn't it ? " 

"Well," replied Sawyer, "the speech was pretty 
good, but I hope he won't charge mileage on his 
travels while delivering it." 



^32 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Mr. Lincoln boarded at Mrs. Spriggs, on Capitol 
Hill, where he had as his messmates the veteran 
Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio ; John Blanchard, John 
Dickey, A. R. Mcllvaine, John Strohm, and James 
Pollock, of Pennsylvania ; Elisha Embree, of Indiana; 
and P. W. Tompkins, of Mississippi — all Whigs. 

Daniel Webster, who was then in the Senate, used 
occasionally to have Mr. Lincoln at one of his pleas- 
ant Saturday breakfasts, where the Western Con- 
gressman's humorous illustrations of the events of 
the day, sparkling with spontaneous and unpremedi- 
tated wit, would give great delight to "the solid men 
of Boston " assembled around the festive board. At 
one time Mr. Lincoln had transacted some legal 
business for Mr. Webster connected with an embryo 
city laid out where Rock River empties into the 
Mississippi. Mr. Fletcher Webster had gone there 
for a while, but Rock Island City was not a pecun- 
iary success, and much of the land on which but one 
payment had been made reverted to the original 
owners. Mr. Lincoln had charged Mr. Webster for 
his legal services $io, which the Great Expounder 
of the Constitution regarded as too small a fee, 
and he would frequently declare that he was still 
Mr. Lincoln's debtor. 

With these pleasant recollections of Mr. Lincoln, 
it was not strange that the older correspondents at 
Washington were glad to learn that he had been 



LINCOLN AND NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS 



?>d>2> 



elected President ; nor did they agree with Mn 
Stanton, who indulged in tirades against Mr. Lin- 
coln, saying on one occasion he " had met him at 
the bar, and found him a low, cunning clown." 
They remembered their genial, story-telling friend, 
and felt confident that he would be somewhat com- 
municative about public affairs, which President Bu- 
chanan was not. 

When Mr. Seward had Mr. Lincoln smuggled 
through Baltimore by night to avoid assassination, 
there was some indignation manifested at Washing 
ton, for but very few credited the rumors afloat. 
Senator Sumner was one of those who believed 
that the President-elect was in danger of, assassina- 
tion, and he wrote him after his arrival, cautioning 
him about going out at night. 

" Sumner," said Mr. Lincoln, "declined to stand 
up with me, back to back, to see which was the 
tallest man, and made a fine speech about this 
being the time for uniting our fronts against the 
enemy and not our backs. But I guess he was 
afraid to measure, though he is a good piece of a 
man. I have never had much to do with bishops 
where I live, but, do you know, Sumner is my idea 
of a bishop." 

Mr. Lincoln gave a cordial greeting to me when I 
called on him after his arrival at Willard's Hotel, 
and he indulged in some pleasant reminiscences of 



334 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



his Congressional career. Of course I talked with 
him about his forthcoming message, and after hav- 
ing made me promise that what he told me should 
not get into print, he gave me an account of it. He 
had written it at his Springfield home, and had had 
it put in type by his friend, the local printer. A 
number of sentences had been reconstructed several 
times before they were entirely satisfactory, and 
then four copies had been printed on foolscap 
paper. These copies had been locked up in what 
Mr. Lincoln called a "gripsack," and intrusted to 
his eldest son Robert. 

"When we reached Harrisburg," said Mr. Lin- 
coln, " and had washed up, I asked Bob where 
the message was, and was taken aback by his con- 
fession that in the excitement caused by the en- 
thusiastic reception he believed he had let a waiter 
take the gripsack. My heart went up into my 
mouth, and I started down-stairs, where I was told 
that if a waiter had taken the gripsack I should 
probably find it in the baggage-room. Going there 
I saw a large pile of gripsacks and other baggage, 
and thought that I discovered mine. My key fitted 
it, but on opening there was nothing Inside but a 
few paper collars and a flask of whiskey. A few 
moments afterward I came across my gripsack, with 
the document in it all right, and now I will show it 
to you — on your honor, mind ! " _ 



LINCOLN AND NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS 335' 

The inaugural was printed in clear-sized type, 
and wherever Mr. Lincoln had thought that a para- 
graph would make an impression upon his audi- 
ence, he had preceded it with a typographical fist, 
thus : i^". 

One copy of this printed draft of the inaugural 
message was given to Mr. Seward, and another to 
the venerable Francis P. Blair, with request that 
they would read and criticise; and Mr. Nicolay, who 
was to be the President's private secretary, made the 
corrected copy in a fair hand, which Mr. Lincoln 
was to read. Mr. Nicolay corrected another copy, 
which was furnished to the press for publication, 
and which I now own. 

At the inauguration, when Mr. Lincoln came out 
on the platform in front of the eastern portico of 
the Capitol, his tall, gaunt figure rose above those 
around him. His personal friend, Senator Baker, of 
Oregon, introduced him to the assemblage, and as 
he bowed acknowledgments of the somewhat faint 
cheers which greeted him, the usual genial smile lit 
up his angular countenance. He was evidently per- 
plexed, just then, to know what to do with his new 
silk hat and a large, gold-headed cane. The cane he 
put under the table, but the hat appeared to be too 
good to place on the rough boards. Senator Doug- 
las saw the embarrassment of his old friend, and, 
rising, took the shining hat from its bothered owner 



^o6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and held it during the delivery of the inaugural ad- 
dress. 

Mr, Lincoln was listened to with great earnestness, 
and evidently desired to convince the multitude be- 
fore him rather than to bewilder or dazzle them. It 
was plain that he honestly believed every word that 
he spoke, especially the concluding paragraphs, one 
of which I copy from the original print : 

" 1^^ I am loath to close. We are not enemies, 
but friends. We must not be enemies. Though 
passion may be strained, it must not break our 
bonds of affection. |y The mystic chords of mem- 
ory, which stretch from every battle-field and patriot 
grave to every loved heart and hearthstone all over 
our broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the 
Union when again touched, as they surely will be, 
by the better angels of our nature." 

The White House, while Mr. Lincoln occupied it, 
was a fertile field for news, which he was always 
ready to give those correspondents in whom he had 
confidence, but the surveillance of the press — first 
by Secretary Seward and then by Secretary Stan- 
ton — was as annoying as it was inefficient. A cen- 
sorship of all matter filed at the Washington office 
of the telegraph, for transmission to different North- 
ern cities, was exercised by a succession of ignorant 
individuals, some of whom had to be hunted up at 
whiskey shops when their signature of approval was 



LINCOLN AND NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS 



337 



desired. A Congressional investigation showed how 
stupidly the censors performed their duty. Inno- 
cent sentences which were supposed to have a hid- 
den meaning were stricken from paragraphs which 
were thus rendered nonsensical, and information 
was rejected that was clipped in print from the 
Washington papers, which it was known regularly 
found their way into " Dixie." 

When irate correspondents appealed to Mr. Lin- 
coln, he would good-naturedly declare that he had 
no control over his secretaries, and would endeavor 
to mollify their wrath by telling them a story. One 
morning in the winter of 1862, when two angry 
journalists had undertaken to explain the annoy- 
ances of the censorship, Mr. Lincoln, who had lis- 
tened In his dreamy way, finally said : 

" I don't know much about this censorship, but 
come down-stairs and I will show you the origin of 
one of the pet phrases of you newspaper fellows." 

Leading the way down Into the basement, he 
opened the door of a larder, and solemnly pointed 
to the hanging carcass of a gigantic sheep. 

"There," said he, "now you know what ' Revenons 
a nos moMtons' means. It was raised by Deacon Buf- 
fum at Manchester, up In New Hampshire. Who 
can say, after looking at it, that New Hampshire's 
only product is granite ? " 

Often when Mr. Lincoln was engaged, correspond- 



^^S REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ents would send in their cards, bearing requests for 
some desired item of news, or for the verification of 
some rumor. He would either come out and give 
the coveted information, or he would write it on the 
back of the card, and send it to the owner. He 
wrote a legible hand, slowly and laboriously perfect- 
ing his sentences before he placed them on paper. 
The long epistles that he wrote to his generals he 
copied himself, not wishing any one else to see them, 
and these copies were kept in pigeon-holes for refer- 
ence. His remarks at Gettysburg, which have been 
compared to the Sermon on the Mount, were written 
in the car on his way from Washington to the battle- 
field, upon a piece of pasteboard held on his knee, 
with persons talking all around him ; yet when a 
few hours afterward he read them, Edward Everett 
said : 

" I would rather be the author of those twenty 
lines than to have all the fame my oration of to-day 
will give me." 

The foreign war correspondents who came to 
Washington quite outshone us resident scribes by 
their pretensions and the style in which they lived. 
The most agreeable of them was Mr. Edward Dyce, 
who had written a readable book on Count Cavour ; 
the most versatile was George Augustus Sala, and 
the most brilliant was Vizetelly, whose clever pencil- 
sketches were in great demand. Anthony Trollopc:, 



LINCOLN AND NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS 339 

who visited Washington on postal business and cor- 
responded with a London weekly, was "English, you 
know ; " and, overtopping all the others — in his own 
estimation at least — was Dr. Russell, of the London 
Times. He organized private theatricals at the 
British Legation, appearing himself as Bombastes 
Furioso ; and he gave pleasant breakfast and supper 
parties. When the Army of the Potomac was at last 
ready to move, he obtained a head-quarter pass for 
himself and his well-stocked ambulance. But when 
he drove down to the steamer Canonicus, on which 
transportation had been given him, the provost 
guard refused, by orders from the War Department, 
to permit him to embark. He hastened to enlist the 
intercession of Senator Sumner and Lord Lyons, the 
British Minister, who appealed to Secretary Stanton, 
but found him Inexorable. Secretary Seward said 
that he was powerless, and Mr. Lincoln refused to 
interfere, saying grimly : 

" This fellow Russell's Bull Run letter was not so 
complimentary as to entitle him to much favor." 

Unable to accompany the army. Dr. Russell sold 
his expensive ambulance and horses, shook the dust 
from his feet, and returned to London. 

Requests for his autograph signature were a source 
of annoyance to Mr. Lincoln, who often had to sign 
his name twenty-five or thirty times a day. When 
Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie, of Philadelphia, called at 



340 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



the White House and asked for the President's 
autograph, Mr. Lincoln said : 

" Will you have it on a card or on a sheet of 
paper?" 

" If the choice rested with myself," said the jovial 
doctor, " I should prefer it at the foot of a com- 
mission." 

Mr. Lincoln smiled, and shook his head as if he 
did not see it in that light, but he sat down and 
wrote a few pleasant lines, adding his legible signa- 
ture, " A. Lincoln." 

After having signed the famous Emancipation 
Proclamation on the ist of January, 1863, Mr. Lin- 
coln carefully put away the pen which he had used, 
for Mr. Sumner, who had promised it to his friend 
George Livermore, of Cambridge, the author of an 
interesting work on slavery. It was a steel pen with 
a wooden handle, the end of which had been gnawed 
by Mr. Lincoln — a habit that he had when compos- 
ing anything that required thought. 

Mr. Lincoln used to wear at the White House, in 
the morning and after dinner, a long-skirted, faded 
dressing-gown, belted around his waist, and slippers. 
His favorite attitude when listening — and he was a 
good listener — was to lean forward and clasp his left 
knee with both hands, as if fondling it, and his face 
would then wear a sad, wearied look. But when the 
time came for him to orive an opinion on what he had 



LINCOLN AND NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS 341 

heard, or to tell a story, which something said "re- 
minded him of," his face would lighten up with its 
homely, rugged smile, and he would run his fingers 
through his bristly black hair, which would stand 
out in every direction like that of an electric experi- 
ment doll. 

Mr. Lincoln's part in subduing the rebellion will 
be better appreciated as time clears away the mists 
of race prejudice and the fogs of political intrigue. 
He was surrounded by able men, widely differing in 
opinion on the negro, but each one hoping that he 
would be President of the United States. To curb 
their ambitions, to humor their prejudices, and to 
make them, as he once expressed it, " pull in the 
traces," was no easy task, and required such a self- 
sacrificing man, of large brain and heart, to direct 
public affairs, as was Abraham Lincoln. 

BENJAMIN PERLEY POORE. 



XVII 
LINCOLN THE MAN 

NO greater truth found expression in poetic 
words than that which Sir Henry Taylor 
puts in the speech of PhiHp Van Artevelde, when 
he says, "the world knows not its greatest men." 
The poet restricted his meaning to 

" The kings of thought. 
Who wage contention with their time's decay, 
f And of the past are all that will not pass away. 

But it extends, as well, to those men of affairs who 
earn the admiration of the crowd they control. 
This ignorance comes of the fact that great men 
have enemies while alive, and friends when dead ; 
and, between the two, the objects of hate and love 
pass into historical phantoms far more unreal than 
their ghosts are supposed to be. With us, when a 
leader dies, all good men go to lying about him, and 
from the monument that covers his remains to the 
last echo of the rural press, in speeches, sermons, 
eulogies and reminiscences, we have naught but 
pious lies. There is no tyranny so despotic as that 
of public opinion among a free people. The rule 



344 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of the majority is to the last extent exacting and 
brutal. When brought to bear upon our eminent 
men, it is also senseless. Poor Garfield, with his 
sensitive temperament, was almost driven to suicide 
by abuse while alive. He fell by the shot of an as- 
sassin, and passed in an instant to the roll of popu- 
lar saints. One day it was contempt to say a word 
in his favor, the next it was dangerous to repeat any 
of the old abuse. 

History is, after all, the crystallization of popular 
beliefs. As a pleasant fiction is more acceptable 
than a naked fact, and as the historian shapes his 
wares, like any other dealer, to suit his customers, 
one can readily see that our chronicles are only a 
duller sort of fiction than the popular novels so 
eagerly read ; not that they are true, but they deal 
in what we long to have — the truth. Popular beliefs, 
in time, come to be superstitions, and create gods 
and devils. Thus Washington is deified into an im- 
possible man, and Aaron Burr has passed into a like 
impossible human monster. Through the same pro- 
cess Abraham Lincoln, one of our truly great, has 
almost gone from human knowledge. I hear of him, 
read of him in eulogies and biographies, and fail to 
recognize the man I encountered, for the first time, 
in the canvass that called him from private life to be 
President of the then disuniting United States. 

General Robert E. Schenck and I had been 



LINCOLN THE MAN 



345 



selected to canvass Southern Illinois in behalf of 
free soil and Abraham Lincoln. That part of Illi- 
nois was then known as Egypt, and in our mission- 
ary labors we learned there that the American eagle 
sometimes lays rotten eggs. Our labors on the 
stump were closed in the wigwam at Springfield a 
few nights previous to the election. Mr. Lincoln 
was present, and listened, with intense interest, to 
General Schenck's able argument. I followed in a 
cheerful review of the situation, that seemed to 
amuse the crowd, and none more so than our can- 
didate for the Presidency. We were both invited 
to return to Springfield, at the jubilee, should suc- 
cess make such rejoicing proper. We did return, 
for this homely son of toil was elected, and we 
found Springfield drunk with delight. On the day 
of our arrival we were invited to a supper at the 
house of the President-elect. It was a plain, com- 
fortable frame structure, and the supper was an old- 
fashioned mess of indigestion, composed mainly of 
cake, pies and chickens, the last evidently killed in 
the morning, to be eaten, as best they might, that 
evening. 

After the supper, we sat, far into the night, talk- 
ing over the situation. Mr. Lincoln was the home- 
liest man I ever saw. His body seemed to me a 
huge skeleton in clothes. Tall as he was, his hands 
and feet looked out of proportion, so long and 



^^6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

clumsy were they. Every movement was awkward 
in the extreme. He sat with one leg thrown over 
the other, and the pendent foot swung almost to the 
floor. And all the while, two little boys, his sons, 
clambered over those legs, patted his cheeks, pulled 
his nose, and poked their fingers in his eyes, with- 
out causing reprimand or even notice. He had a 
face that defied artistic skill to soften or idealize. 
The multiplicity of photographs and engravings 
makes it familiar to the public. It was capable of 
few expressions, but those were extremely striking. 
When in repose, his face was dull, heavy and repel- 
lent. It brightened, like a lit lantern, when ani- 
mated. His dull eyes would fairly sparkle with fun, 
or express as kindly a look as I ever saw, when 
moved by some matter of human interest. 

I soon discovered that this strange and strangely 
gifted man, while not at all cynical, was a sceptic. 
His view of human nature was low, but good- 
natured. I could not call it suspicious, but he be- 
lieved only what he saw. This low estimate of 
humanity blinded him to the South. He could not 
understand that men would get up in their wrath 
and fight for an idea. He considered the move- 
ment South as a sort of political game of bluff, got- 
ten up by politicians, and meant solely to frighten 
the North. He believed that, when the leaders saw 
their efforts in that direction were unavailing, the 



LINCOLN THE MAN 347 

tumult would subside. " They won't give up the 
offices," I remember he said, and added, " were it 
believed that vacant places could be had at the 
North Pole, the road there would be lined with 
dead Virginians." He unconsciously accepted, for 
himself and party, the same low line that he awarded 
the South. Expressing no sympathy for the slave, 
he laughed at the Abolitionists as a disturbing ele- 
ment easily controlled, and without showing any 
dislike to the slave-holders, said only that their am- 
bition was to be restrained. 

I gathered more of this from what Mrs. Lincoln 
said than from the utterances of our host. This 
good lady injected remarks into the conversation 
with more force than logic, and was treated by her 
husband with about the same good-natured indiffer- 
ence with which he regarded the troublesome boys. 
In the wife's talk of the coming administration 
there was an amusing assumption that struck me 
as very womanly, but somewhat ludicrous. For in- 
stance, she said, " The country will find how we re- 
gard that abolition sneak, Seward ! " Mr. Lincoln 
put the remarks aside, very much as he did the hand 
of one of his boys when that hand invaded his ca- 
pacious mouth. 

We were not at a loss to get at the fact, and the 
reason for it, in the man before us. Descended 
from the poor whites of a slave State, through many 



■248 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

generations, he inherited the contempt, if not the 
hatred, held by that class for the negro. A self- 
made man, with scarcely a winter's schooling from 
books, his strong nature was built on what he inher- 
ited, and he could no more feel a sympathy for 
that wretched race than he could for the horse he 
worked or the hog he killed. In this he exhibited 
the marked trait that governed his public life. He 
never rose above the mass he influenced, and was 
strong with the people from the fact that he accom- 
panied the commons without any attempt to lead, 
save in the direction they sought to follow. He 
knew, and saw clearly, that the people of the free 
States had, not only, no sympathy with the abolition 
of slavery, but held fanatics, as Abolitionists were 
called, in utter abhorrence. While it seemed a 
cheap philanthropy, and therefore popular, to free an- 
other man's slave, the fact was that it was not an- 
other man's slave. The unrequited toil of the slave 
was more valuable to the North than to the South. 
With our keen business instincts, we of the free 
States utilized the brutal work of the masters. They 
made, without saving, all that we accumulated. 
The Abolitionist was hunted and imprisoned under 
the shadow of the Bunker Hill Monument as keenly 
as he was tracked by bloodhounds at the South. 
Wendell Phillips, the silver-tongued advocate of 
human rights, was, while Mr. Lincoln talked to us, 



LINCOLN THE MAN 



349 



being ostracized at Boston and rotten-egged at Cin- 
cinnati. A keen knowledge of human nature in a 
jury, more than a knowledge of law, in his case, had 
put our President-elect at the head of his profession, 
and this same knowledge made him master of the 
situation when he came to mold into action the 
stirred impulses of the people. 

I felt myself studying this strange, quaint, great 
man with keen interest. A newly fashioned individ- 
uality had come within the circle of my observation. 
I saw a man of coarse, rough fiber, without culture, 
and yet of such force that every observation was 
original, incisive and striking, while his illustrations 
were as quaint as ^^sop's fables. He had little taste 
for, and less knowledge of, literature, and while well 
up in what we call history, limited his acquaintance 
with fiction to that somber poem known as "Why 
should the spirit of mortal be proud ? " 

It was well for us that our President proved to be 
what I then recognized. He was equal to the awful 
strain put upon him in the four years of terrible 
strife that followed. A man of delicate mold and 
sympathetic nature, such as Chase or Seward, would 
have broken down, not from overwork, although 
that was terrible, but from the over-anxiety that 
kills. Lincoln had none of this. He faced and lived 
through the awful responsibility of the situation with 
the high courage and comfort that came of indiffer- 



350 



kEMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



ence. At the darkest period, for us, of the war, 
when the enemy's cannon were throbbing in its roar 
along the walls of our Capitol, I heard him say to 
General Schenck, " I enjoy my rations, and sleep the 
sleep of the innocent." 

Mr. Lincoln did not believe, could not be made to 
believe, that the South meant secession and war. 
When I told him, subsequently to this conversation, 
at a dinner-table in Chicago, where the Hon. Han- 
nibal Hamlin, General Schenck, and others were 
guests, that the Southern people were in dead ear- 
nest, meant war, and I doubted whether he would be 
inaugurated at Washington, he laughed and said the 
fall of pork at Cincinnati had affected me. I became 
somewhat irritated, and told him that in ninety days 
the land would be whitened with tents. He said in 
reply, " Well, we won't jump that ditch until we 
come to it," and then, after a pause, he added, "■ I 
must run the machine as I find it." I take no credit 
to myself for this power of prophecy. I only 
said what every one acquainted with the Southern 
people knew, and the wonder is that Mr. Lin- 
coln should have been so blind to the coming 
storm. 

The epigrammatic force of his expressions was 
remarkable for the singular purity of his words. 
What he said was so original that I reduced much 
of it to writing at the time. One of these was this, 



LINCOLN THE MAN 35 1 

on secession : " If our Southern friends are right In 
their claim, the framers of the government carefully 
planned the rot that now threatens their work with 
destruction. If one State has the right, at will, to 
withdraw, certainly a majority have the right, and we 
have the result given us of the States being able to 
force out one State. That is logical." 

We remained at Springfield several days, and then 
accompanied the President-elect, on his invitation, 
to Chicago. The invitation was so pressing that 
I believed Mr. Lincoln intended calling General 
Schenck to his Cabinet. I am still of this opinion, 
and attribute the change to certain low intrigues 
hatched at Chicago by the newly created politicians 
of that locality, who saw in the coming adminis- 
tration opportunities for plunder that Robert E. 
Schenck's known probity would have blasted. 

Subsequent to the supper we had gatherings at 
Mr. Lincoln's old law office, and at the political 
head-quarters, at which men only formed the com- 
pany ; and before those good honest citizens, who 
fairly worshiped their distinguished neighbor, Mr. 
Lincoln gave way to his natural bent for fun, and 
told very amusing stories, always in quaint illustra- 
tion of the subject under discussion, no one of which 
will bear printing. They were coarse, and were 
saved from vulgarity only by being so strangely in 
point, and told not for the sake of the telling, as 



■7C2 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM IINCOLN 

if he enjoyed the stories themselves, but that they 
were, as I have said, so quaintly illustrative. 

The man who could open a Cabinet meeting called 
to discuss the Emancipation Proclamation by read- 
ing Artemus Ward, who called for a comic song on 
the bloody battle-field, was the same man who could 
guide with clear mind and iron hand the diplomacy 
that kept off the fatal interference of Europe, while 
conducting at home the most horrible of all civil 
wars that ever afflicted a people. He reached with 
ease the highest and the lowest level, and on the 
very field that he shamed with a ribald song he left 
a record of eloquence never reached by human lips 
before. 

There is a popular belief that Abraham Lincoln 
was of so kind and forgiving a nature that his gen- 
tler impulses interfered with his duty. In proof of 
this, attention is called to the fact that through all 
the war he never permitted a man to be shot for de- 
sertion. The belief is erroneous. There never lived 
a man who could say " no " with easier facility, and 
abide by his saying with more firmness, than Presi- 
dent Lincoln. His good-natured manner misled the 
common mind. It covered as firm a character as 
nature ever clad with human flesh, and I doubt 
whether Mr. Lincoln had at all a kind, forgiving 
nature. Such traits are not common to successful 
leaders. They, like Hannibal, melt their way 



LINCOLN THE MAN 353 

through rocks with hot vinegar, not honey. And 
that good-natured way more generally covers a self- 
ish than a generous disposition. Men instinctively 
find it easier to glide comfortably through life with a 
round, oily, elastic exterior, than in an angular, hard 
one. Such give way in trifles and hold their own 
adversely in all the more serious sacrifices of self to 
the good or comfort of others. If one doubts what 
I here assert, let such turn and study the hard, angu- 
lar, coarse face of this great man. Nature never 
gave that as an indication of a tender, yielding dis- 
position. Nor had his habits of life in any respect 
softened its hard lines. Hazlitt tells us, with truth, 
that while we may control the voice, and discipline 
the manner, the face is beyond command. Day and 
night, waking and sleeping, our character is being 
traced there, to be read by all men who care to 
make the face a study. It is common, for example, 
for the President to be in continual trouble over sup- 
posed promises to ofifice-seekers. Mr. Lincoln had 
none of this. He would refuse so clearly and posi- 
tively that it left no doubt and no hope, and yet in 
such a pleasant manner that the applicant left with 
no ill feeling in his disappointment. I heard Secre- 
tary Seward say, in this connection, that President 
Lincoln "had a cunning that was genius." As for 
his steady refusal to sanction the death penalty in 
cases of desertion, there was far more policy in the 



354 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

course than kind feeling. To assert the contrary 
is to detract from Lincoln's force of character as 
well as intellect. As Secretary Chase said at the 
time, "such kindness to the criminal is cruelty to 
the army, for it encourages the bad to leave the 
brave and patriotic unsupported." The fact is that 
our war President was not lost in his high admira- 
tion of brigadiers and major-generals, and had a 
positive dislike for their methods and the despotism 
on which an army is based. He knew that he was 
dependent on volunteers for soldiers, and to force 
on such the stern discipline of the regular army was 
to render the service unpopular. And it pleased 
him to be the source of mercy, as well as the fount- 
ain of honor, in this direction. 

I was sitting with General Dan Tyler, of Connec- 
ticut, in the antechamber of the War Department, 
shortly after the adjournment of the Buell court of 
inquiry, of which we had been members, when 
President Lincoln came in from the room of Secre- 
tary Stanton. Seeing us, he said : " Well, gentlemen, 
you did not survive the war, and now have you any 
matter worth reporting, after such a protracted in- 
vestigation ? " "I think so, Mr. President," replied 
General Tyler. " We had it proven that Bragg, with 
less than ten thousand men, drove your eighty-three 
thousand under Buell back from before Chattanooga, 
down to the Ohio at Louisville, marched round us 



LINCOLN THE MAN 



355 



twice, then doubled us up at Perryville, and finally 
got out of Kentucky with all his plunder." " Now, 
Tyler," said the President, "what is the meaning of 
all this ; what is the lesson ? Don't our men march 
as well, and fight as well, as these rebels? If not, 
there is a fault somewhere. We are all of the same 
family — same sort." " Yes, there is a lesson," replied 
General Tyler. " We are of the same sort, but sub- 
ject to a different handling. Bragg's little force was 
superior to our larger number, because he had it 
under control. If a man left his ranks, he was pun- 
ished ; if he deserted, he was shot. We had nothing 
of that sort. If we attempt to shoot a deserter, you 
pardon him, and our army is without discipline." 
The President looked perplexed. " Why do you in- 
terfere ?" General Tyler continued. " Congress has 
taken from you all responsibility." " Yes," answered 
the President impatiently, " Congress has taken the 
responsibility, and left the women to howl about 
me ; " and so he strode away, and General Tyler re- 
marked that, as it was not necessary for the Presi- 
dent to see one of these women, to jeopard an army 
on such grounds was very feeble. The fact was, 
however, as I have said, the President had other 
and stronger motives for his conduct. 

Of President Lincoln's high sense of justice, or 
rather fair play, I have a vivid recollection. Previous 
to Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, rumors of which 



35^ 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



reached Washington in advance of that suicidal move- 
ment on the part of the Confederates, General Hal- 
leck issued one of his non-committal orders to Gen- 
eral Schenck, then in command at Baltimore, advising 
the concentration of our troops at Harper's Ferry. 
This referred especially to General Milroy's 10,000 
men at Winchester. I was sent, as chief of staff, to 
look into Milroy's condition, and empowered to let 
him remain or order him back, as I might see fit. 
Winchester, as a fortified place, was a military blun- 
der. It covered nothing, while a force there was in 
constant peril. I had learned enough in the service 
to know that a subordinate should take no chances, 
and I ordered Milroy back to Harper's Ferry. Gen- 
eral Schenck, at Milroy's earnest request, counter- 
manded my order, and three days after Milroy found 
himself surrounded by Lee's entire army. The gal- 
lant old soldier cut his way out, with his entire com- 
mand. Of course there was a heavy loss of material. 
For this Milroy was put under arrest by Secretary 
Stanton, and court-martialed by Halleck. Milroy 
shielded himself behind Schenck's order, so that the 
court convened was really trying my general without 
the advantages given him, as defendant, of being 
heard in his defense. General Schenck was sum- 
moned to appear, and instead of appearing drew up 
a protest, that he directed me not only to take to the 
President, but read to him, fearing the protest would 



LINCOLN THE MAN 



357 



be pigeon-holed for consideration when consideration 
would be too late. It was late in the afternoon, and 
riding to the White House, I was told the President 
could be found at the War Department. I met him 
coming out, and delivered my message. " Let me see 
the protest," said the President as we walked toward 
the Executive Mansion. " General Schenck ordered 
me, Mr. President, to read it to you." '' Well, I can 
read," he responded sharply, and as he was General 
Schenck's superior officer I handed him the paper. 
He read as he strode along. Arriving at the en- 
trance to the White House, we found the carriage 
awaiting to carry him to the Soldiers' Home, where 
he was then spending the summer, and the guard de- 
tailed to escort him drawn up in front. The Presi- 
dent sat down upon the steps of the porch, and con- 
tinued his study of the protest. I have him photo- 
graphed on my mind, as he sat there, and a strange 
picture he presented. His long, slender legs were 
drawn up until his knees were level with his chin, 
while his long arms held the paper, which he studied 
regardless of the crowd before him. He read on to 
the end, then, looking up, said : " Piatt, don't you 
think that you and Schenck are squealing, like pigs, 
before you're hurt ? " " No, Mr. President." " Why, 
I am the Court of Appeal," he continued, " and do 
you think I am going to have an injustice done 
Schenck ?" " Before the appeal can be heard, a sol- 



358 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

dier's reputation will be blasted by a packed court," 
I responded. "Come, now," he exclaimed, an ugly 
look shading his face, "you and I are lawyers, and 
know the meaning of the word ' packed.' I don't 
want to hear it from your lips again. What's the 
matter with the court ? " " It is illegally organized 
by General Halleck." " Halleck's act is mine." " I 
beg your pardon, Mr. President, the Rules and Reg- 
ulations direct that in cases of this sort you shall 
select the court ; you cannot delegate that to a sub- 
ordinate any more than you can the pardoning 
power," and opening the book I pointed to the ar- 
ticle. " That is a point," he said, slowly rising. " Do 
you know. Colonel, that I have been so busy with 
this war I have never read the Regulations. Give 
me that book, and I'll study them to-night." " I beg 
your pardon, Mr. President," I said, giving him the 
book, " but in the mean time my general will be put 
under arrest for disobedience, and the mischief will 
be done." " That's so," he replied. " Here, give 
me a pencil," and tearing off a corner of the paper 
General Schenck had sent him, he wrote : " All pro- 
ceedings before the court convened to try General 
Milroy are suspended until further orders. — A. Lin- 
coln." The next morning I clanked into the court- 
room with my triangular order, and had the grim 
satisfaction of seeing the owls in epaulets file out, 
never to be called again. 



LINCOLN THE MAN 



359 



With all his awkwardness of manner, and utter dis- 
regard of social conventionalities that seemed to in- 
vite familiarity, there was something about Abraham 
Lincoln that enforced respect. No man presumed 
on the apparent invitation to be other than respect- 
ful. I was told at Springfield that this accompanied 
him through life. Among his rough associates, when 
young, he was leader, looked up to and obeyed, be- 
cause they felt of his muscle and his readiness in its 
use. Among his associates at the bar, it was attrib- 
uted to his ready wit, which kept his duller associ- 
ates at a distance. The fact was, however, that this 
power came from a sense of a reserve force of intel- 
lectual ability that no one took account of, save in 
its results. Through one of those freaks of nature 
that produce a Shakespeare at long intervals, a 
giant had been born to the poor whites of Kentucky, 
and the sense of superiority possessed President 
Lincoln at all times. Unobtruding and even unas- 
suming as he was, he was not modest in his asser- 
tion, and he as quietly directed Seward in shaping 
our delicate and difficult foreign policy as he con- 
trolled Chase in the Treasury and Edwin M. Stan- 
ton in the War Department. These men, great as 
they were, felt their inferiority to their master, and 
while all three were eaten into and weakened by 
anxiety, he ate and slept and jested as if his shoul- 
ders did not carry, Atlas-like, the fate of an empire. 



o5o REAflNISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I never saw him angry but once, and I had no 
wish to see a second exhibition of his wrath. We 
were in command of what was called the Middle 
Department, with head-quarters at Baltimore. Gen- 
eral Schenck, with that intense loyalty which distin- 
guished this eminent soldier, shifted the military 
sympathy from the aristocracy of Maryland to the 
Union men, and made the eloquent Henry Winter 
Davis and the well-known jurist Judge Bond our as- 
sociates and advisers. These gentlemen could not 
understand why, having such entire command of 
Maryland, the government did not make it a free 
State, and so, taking the property from the disloyal, 
render them weak and harmless, and bring the bor- 
der of free States to the capital of the Union. The 
fortifications about Baltimore, used heretofore to 
threaten that city, now, under the influence of Davis, 
Bond, Wallace, and others, had their guns turned out- 
ward for the protection of the place, and it seemed 
only necessary to inspire the negroes with a faith 
in us as liberators to perfect the work. The first in- 
timation I received that this policy of freeing Mary- 
land was distasteful to the administration came from 
Secretary Stanton. I had told him what we thought, 
and what we hoped to accomplish. I noticed an 
amused expression on the face of the War Secretary, 
and when I ended he said dryly, " You and Schenck 
had better attend to your own business." I asked 



t/ 



LINCOLN THE MAN 36 1 

him what he meant by "our business." He said, 
" Obeying orders, that's all." 

Not long after this talk with Mr. Stanton, the gal- 
lant General William Birney, son of the eminent 
James G. Birney, came into Maryland to recruit for 
a negro brigade, then first authorized. I directed 
Birney to recruit slaves only. He said he would be 
glad to do so, but wanted authority in writing from 
General Schenck. I tried my general, and he re- 
fused, saying that such authority could come only 
from the War Department, as Birney was acting di- 
rectly under its instructions. I could not move him, 
and knowing that he had a leave of absence for a 
few days, to transact some business at Boston, I 
waited patiently until he was fairly off, and then is- 
sued the order to General Birney. The General 
took an idle government steamer, and left for the 
part of Maryland where slaves were most abundant. 
Birney was scarcely out of sight before I awakened 
to the opposition I had excited. The Hon. Rev- 
erdy Johnson appeared at head-quarters, heading a 
delegation of solid citizens who wanted the Union 
and slavery saved, one and inseparable. I gave 
them scant comfort, and they left for Washington. 
That afternoon came a telegram from the War De- 
partment, asking who was in command at Baltimore. 
I responded that General Schenck, being absent for 
a few days only, had left affairs in control of his 



362 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

chief of staff. Then came a curt summons, order- 
ing me to appear at the War Department. I obeyed, 
arriving in the evening at the old, somber build- 
ing. Being informed that the Secretary was at the 
Executive Mansion, I repaired there, sent in my 
card, and was at once shown into the presence, not 
of Mr. Stanton, but of the President. I do not care 
to recall the words of Mr. Lincoln. I wrote them 
out that night, for I was threatened a shameful dis- 
missal from the service, and I intended appealing to 
the public. They were exceedingly severe, for the 
President was in a rage. I was not allowed a word 
in my own defense, and was only permitted to say 
that I would countermand my order as well as I 
could. I was saved cashiering through the interfer- 
ence of Stanton and Chase, and the further fact that 
a row over such a transaction at that time would 
have been extremely awkward. 

My one act made Maryland a free State. Word 
went out, and spread like wildfire, that " Mr. Lin- 
kum was a callin' on de slaves to fight foh freedum," 
and the hoe-handle was dropped, never again to be 
taken up by unrequited toil. The poor creatures 
poured into Baltimore with their families, on foot, 
on horseback, in old wagons, and even on sleds 
stolen from their masters. The late masters became 
clamorous for compensation, and Mr. Lincoln or- 
dered a commission to assess damages, Secretary 



LINCOLN THE MAN 363 

Stanton put in a proviso that those cases only 
should be considered where the claimant could take 
the iron-bound oath of allegiance. Of course no 
slaves were paid for. 

The President never forgave me. Subsequently, 
when General Schenck resigned command to take 
his seat in Congress, the Union men of Maryland 
and Delaware, headed by Judge Bond, waited on the 
President with a request that I be promoted to briga- 
dier-general and put in command of the Middle De- 
partment. Mr. Lincoln heard them patiently, and 
then refused, saying, " Schenck and Piatt are good 
fellows, and if there were any rotten apples in the 
barrel they'd be sure to hook 'em out. But they run 
their machine on too high a level for me. They 
never could understand that I was boss." Edwin 
M. Stanton told me, after he left the War Depart- 
ment, that when he sent a list of officers to the 
President, my name included, as worthy promotion, 
Lincoln would quietly draw his pen through my 
name. I do not blame him. His great, thoughtful 
brain saw at the time what has taken years for us to 
discover and appreciate. He understood the people 
he held to a death struggle in behalf of the great 
Republic, and knew that, while the masses would 
fight to the bitter end in behalf of the Union, they 
would not kill their own brothers, and spread mourn- 
ing over the entire land, in behalf of the negro. He 



^54 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

therefore kept the cause of the Union to the front, 
and wrote to Horace Greeley the memorable words : 
" If to preserve the Union it is necessary to destroy 
slavery, slavery will be destroyed ; and if to preserve 
the Union slavery is to be maintained, slavery will 
be maintained." He well knew that the North was 
not fighting to liberate slaves, nor the South to 
preserve slavery. The people of the slave States 
plunged into a bloody war to build a Southern em- 
pire of their own, and the people of the North 
fought to preserve the government of the fathers on 
all the land the fathers left us. In that awful con- 
flict slavery went to pieces. 

We are quick to forget the facts and slow to 
recognize the truths that knock from us our preten- 
tious claims to a high philanthropy. As I have said, 
abolitionism was not only unpopular when the war 
broke out, but it was detested. The minority that 
elected Mr. Lincoln had fallen heir to the Whig 
votes of the North, and while pledging itself, in plat- 
forms and speeches, to a solemn resolve to keep 
slavery under the Constitution in the States, re- 
stricted its antislavery purpose to the prevention of 
its spread into the Territories. I remember when 
the Hutchinsons were driven from the camps of the 
Potomac Army by the soldiers for singing their abo- 
lition songs, and I remember well that for two years 
nearly of our service as soldiers we were engaged in 



LINCOLN THE MAN 



365 



returning slaves to their masters, when the poor 
creatures sought shelter in our lines. 

President Lincoln's patriotism and wisdom rose 
above impulse, or his positive temperament and in- 
tellect kept him free of mere sentiment. Looking 
back now at this grand man, and the grave situation 
at the time, I am ashamed of my aot of insubordina- 
tion, and although it freed Maryland it now lowers 
me in my own estimation. Had the President car- 
ried his threat of punishment into execution, it would 
have been just. 

The popular mind is slow of study, and I fear it 
will be long ere it learns that, while an eminent man 
wins our admiration through his great qualities, he 
can hold our love only from his human weaknesses 
that make him one of ourselves. We are told that, 
with the multitude, nothing is so successful as suc- 
cess, yet there is often more heroism in failure than 
in triumph. The one is frequently the result of acci- 
dent, while the other holds in itself all that endears 
the martyr to the human heart. The unfortunate 
Hector is, after all, the hero of the Iliad, and not the 
invulnerable Achilles, and by our popular process of 
eliminating all human weakness from our great men 
we weaken, and in a measure destroy, their immor- 
tality, for we destroy them. As we accept the sad, 
rugged, homely face, and love it for what it is, we 
should accept it as it was, the grandest figure loom- 



366 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ing up in our history as a nation. Washington 
taught the world to know us, Lincoln taught us to 
know ourselves. The first won for us our independ- 
ence, the last wrought out our manhood and self- 
respect 

DONN PIATT. 



XVIII 
LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY 

MY acquaintance with Lincoln could hardly be 
called an acquaintance. I was rather an 
observer. I followed him as I did every public 
character during the antislavery conflict. The first 
thing that really awakened my interest in him was 
his speeches parallel with Douglas in Illinois, and 
indeed it was that manifestation of ability that 
secured his nomination to the Presidency. It was 
a matter of great importance that the new Presiden- 
tial election should have another candidate than 
Fremont, and Lincoln's speech at the Cooper Union, 
after his controversy with Douglas, settled it. 

Seward expected the nomination, but overhopeful 
nature would, I think, have gone far to damage the 
whole country if he had been President, and the 
nomination of Lincoln was, to begin with, the reve- 
lation of the hand of God. 

He was, in the most significant way, a man that 
embodied all the best qualities of unspoiled, middle- 
class men. He had the homely common sense ; he 
had honesty with sagacity ; and he had sympathetic 



^58 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

nature that prepared him to accept any stormy 
times. The colored people were the helpless wards ; 
the Southern people, our fellow-citizens. 

The weakness of human nature is such that when 
a man is born he is helpless ; and he can never stand 
up against the public sentiment of the age in which 
he lives. Lincoln was able to deal with all classes 
of men, from his very nature. When he first went 
to Washington, the general opinion was that he was 
an honest man but lacked in sagacity ; but a friend 
told me he was the best judge of men in the country. 

Thus far in a general way. 

I was editor of the Independent in 1 86 1-2, and of 
course my duty compelled me to keep the run of 
things, and know what was going on behind and 
outside. 

The first visit I ever made to Washington was be- 
fore the war. The organization of the church was 
controlled by the South, and I walked the streets 
and was regarded by the people there as a sort of 
dangerous animal. They stood and looked at me as 
they would a bull-dog or bear. I did not go to 
Washington again until 1862. 

In 1862, the great delay, the want of any success, 
the masterly inactivity of our leading generals, roused 
my indignation, and I wrote a series of editorials ad- 
dressed to the President (three or four), and as near 
as I can recollect they were in the nature of a mow- 



LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY^ 369 

ing machine — they cut at every revolution — and I 
was told one day that the President had received 
them and read them through with very serious coun- 
tenance, and that his only criticism was : " Is thy 
servant a dog?" They bore down on him very 
hard. 

I went to England in 1863, not directly or in- 
directly by request of Mr. Lincoln or of Mr. Sew- 
ard, and was opposed to speaking there until I was 
dragged into it by things over there. 

On my return from England I fell in with Stan- 
ton, and I consider him to be head and shoulders 
above all others in that conflict. 

There was some talk, early in 1864, of a sort of 
compromise with the South. Blair had told the 
President that he was satisfied if he could be put 
in communication with some of the leading men 
of the South in some way or other, that some 
benefit would accrue. Lincoln had sent a delega- 
tion to meet Alexander Stephens, and that was all 
the North knew. We were all very much excited 
over that. The war lasted so long, and I was afraid 
Lincoln would be so anxious for peace, and I was 
afraid he would accept something that would be of 
advantage to the South, so I went to Washington 
and called upon him. We were alone in his receiv- 
ing-room. His hair was "every way for Sunday." 
It looked as thousrh it was an abandoned stubble 



^>jO kEMlNISCEt^CES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

field. He had on slippers, and his vest was what 
was called "going free." He looked wearied, and 
when he sat down in a chair, looked as though every 
limb wanted to drop off his body. And I said to 
him, " Mr. Lincoln, I come to you to know whether 
the public interest will permit you to explain to me 
what this Southern commission means ? I am in a 
position as editor, not wont to step in the dark." 
Well, he listened very patiently, and looked up to 
the ceiling for a few moments, and said : " Well, I 
am almost of a mind to show you all the docu- 
ments." 

" Well, Mr. Lincoln, I should like to see them if 
it is proper." He went to his little secretary, and 
came out and handed me a little card as long as my 
finger and an inch wide, and on that was written — 

" You will pass the bearer through the lines " (or 
something to that effect). 

"A. LINCOLN." 

" There," he said, " is all there is of it. Now 
Blair thinks something can be done, but I don't, but 
I have no objection to have him try his hand. He 
has no authority whatever but to go and see what 
he can do." 

" Well," said I, " you have lifted a great burden 
off my mind." 

Well, that being all safely over, we talked a little 



LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY 37 I 

about other things, and some one came in and said 
to him that a deputation had just arrived and wanted 
to see him. 

"Well," said he, "you come along with me." I 
said I did not want to make any remarks, but he 
said, " Come along." 

We went to a balcony window, and Mr. Lincoln 
made a few courteous remarks, and then he said, 
"Now Mr. Beecher will talk to you." I do not 
remember what I said — a few words. 

I do not know that I ever met him after that. 

John Dufrees was Public Printer, and was my old 
friend and chum. He was intimately acquainted 
with him, and he gave me a good many things which 
would come more properly from him than me. 

When Mrs. Stowe called to see Lincoln towards 
the close of the war, she says that she spoke of the 
great relief he must feel at the prospect of an early 
close of the war and the establishment of peace. 
And he said, in a sad way, " No, Mrs. Stowe, I shall 
never live to see peace ; this war is killing me ; " 
and he had a presentiment that he would not live 
long, that he had put his whole life into the war, and 
that when it was over he would then collapse. 

Nobody will ever understand Lincoln who is not 
acquainted with Western character and habit of 
thirty or forty years ago. 

I have heard of these stories from Stanton. Stan- 



/ 

372 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ton was as tender as a woman — he was as tender as 
a lover. I had great admiration for him. 

I came up Wall Street one day and met a friend 
who said : " I just came back from Washington. 
Stanton is breaking down ; he won't hold out much 
longer." 

Well, it just struck me all in a heap. I walked 
into one of those offices in Wall Street and said, 
"Will you allow me pen and ink?" and wrote to 
him just what I had heard — that he was sick and 
broken down and desponding. I wrote that he need 
not despond, that the country was saved, and, if he 
did not do another thing, he had done enough. I 
sent the letter, and in the course of a few days I got 
back a letter, and if it had been a woman writing in 
answer to a proposal it could not have been more 
tender. And when I went to Washington he treated 
me with great tenderness, as if I had been his son. 

When Johnson had come to the Presidency, and 
Stanton and every one was anxious that he should 
be kept in Northern influence, I went down to 
Washington to preach the funeral sermon. The 
President was there, and he asked me to call and see 
him — that he would be happy to see me. 

Stanton said, "Go." I afterward went to see the 
President. I returned to Stanton's and went into 
his study, and he got a box of cigars, and I thought 
that if I did not smoke he would not like it, and I 



LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY ^^t^ 

took a smoke, although it made me sick — puffing 
occasionally — and when he threw away his, I did 
mine. 

Stanton, evidently, got rest from his great cares 
through literature ; but Lincoln, from the humorists. 
I^ understood them both perfectly. Stanton had 
poetry for his relaxation. Everybody must have 
somewhere to blow off. 

HENRY WARD BEECHER. 



XIX 
LINCOLN IN HISTORY 

WHEN Anson Burlingame was in this country 
the last time he gave me an account of his 
life in China, his relations with the principal person- 
ages there, and said, finally, " When I die they will 
erect monuments and temples to my memory. How- 
ever much I may now protest, they will do that." 
This, we are told, the people and government of 
China have done. 

Gratitude to public benefactors is the common 
sentiment of mankind. It has found expression in 
every age ; it finds expression in every condition 
of society. Monuments and temples seem to belong 
to the age of art rather than to the age of letters, 
but reflection teaches us that letters cannot fully 
express the obligations of the learned, even to their 
chief benefactors, and only in a less degree can epi- 
taphs, essays and histories satisfy those who have 
not the opportunity and culture to read and under- 
stand them. Moreover, monuments and temples in 
honor of the dead express the sentiments of their 



376 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

contemporaries who survive ; and the sentiments of 
contemporaries, when freed from passion, crystallize, 
usually, into opinion — the fixed, continuing opinion of 
mankind. Napoleon must ever remain great ; Wash- 
ington, good and great ; Burke, the first of English 
orators ; the younger Pitt, the chief of English states- 
men ; and Henry the Eighth, a dark character in 
British history. Time and reflection, the competing 
fame of new and illustrious men, the antiquarian 
and the critic, may modify the first-formed opinion, 
but seldom or never is it changed. The judgment 
rendered at the grave is a just judgment usually, 
but whether so or not it is not often disturbed. 

The fame of noble men is at once the most en- 
dearing and the most valuable public possession. 
Of the distant past it is all of value that remains ; 
and of the recent past, the verdant fields, the vil- 
lages, cities and institutions of culture and govern- 
ment are only monuments which men of that past 
have reared to their own fame. History is but the 
account of men : the earth, even, is but a mighty 
theater on which human actors, great and small, 
have played their parts. Superior talents and favor- 
ing circumstances have secured for a few persons 
that special recognition called immortality ; that is, 
a knowledge of qualities and actions attributed to 
an individual whose name is preserved and trans- 
mitted, with that knowledge, from one generation to 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 



377 



another. This immortality may be nothing to the 
dead, but the record furnishes examples and in- 
spiring facts, especially for the young, by which they 
are encouraged and stimulated to lead lives worthy 
of the illustrious men of the past. Herein is the 
value, and the chief value, of monuments, temples, 
histories and panegyrics. If the highest use of 
sinners is, by their evil lives and bad examples, to 
keep saints to their duty, so it is also that the im- 
mortality accorded to those who were scourges 
rather than benefactors serves as a warning to men 
who strive to write their names upon the page of 
history. But the world really cherishes only the I 
memory of those who were good as well as great, 
and hence it is the effort of panegyrists and hero- 
worshipers to place their idols in that attitude be- 
fore mankind. The immortal few are those who ' 
have identified themselves with contests and prin- 
ciples in which men of all times are interested ; or \ 
who have so expressed the wish or thought or pur- 
pose of mankind, that their words both enlighten 
and satisfy the thoughtful of every age. When we 
consider how much is demanded of aspirants for 
lasting fame, we can understand the statement that 
that century is rich which adds more than one name 
to the short list of persons who in an historical 
sense are immortal. In that sense those only are 
immortal whose fame passes beyond the country, 



378 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

beyond the race, beyond the language, beyond the 
century, and far outspreads all knowledge of the de- 
tails of local and national history. 

The empire of Japan sent accredited to the United 
States as its first minister resident, Ari Nori Mori, a 
young man of extraordinary ability, and then only 
twenty-four years of age. A few months before 
Japan was opened to intercourse with other nations 
an elder brother of Mori lived for a time as a student 
at Jeddo, the capital of the empire. Upon his return 
to his home in the country he informed the family 
that he had heard of a new and distant nation of 
which Washington, the greatest and best of men, 
was the founder, savior and father. Beyond this he 
had heard little of the country or the man, but this 
brief statement so inspired the younger brother to 
know more of the man and of the country, that he 
resolved to leave his native land without delay, and 
in disobedience both to parental rule and public law. 
In this single fact we see what fame is in its largest 
sense, and we realize also the power of a single 
character to influence others even where there is no 
tie of country, of language, of race, or any except 
that which gives unity to the whole family of man. 
If, then, the acquisition of fame in a large sense be 
so difficult, is it wise thus to present the subject to 
the young ? May they not be deterred from those 
manly efforts which are the prerequisites to success ? 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 379 

I answer, Fame is not a proper object of human 
effort, and its pursuit is the most unwise of human 
unfdertakings. I am not now moraHzing ; I am try- 
ing to state the account as a worldly transaction. 
Moreover, there is a distinction between the fame of 
which I have spoken and contemporaneous rec- 
ognition of one's capacity and fitness to perform 
important private or public service. This is repu- 
tation rather than fame, and it well may be sought 
by honorable effort, and it should be prized by every 
one as an object of virtuous ambition. Success, 
however, is not so often gained by direct effort as by 
careful, systematic, thorough preparation for duty. 
The world is not so loaded with genius, nor even 
with talent, that opportunities are wanting for all 
those who have capacity for public service. 

Mr. Bancroft gave voice to the considerate judg- 
ment of mankind when, in conversation, he said, 
"Beyond question, General Washington, intellectually, 
is the first of Americans." If this statement be open 
to question, the question springs from the limita- 
tion, for beyond doubt Washington is the first of 
Americans. His pre-eminence, his greatness, appear 
in the fact that his faculties and powers were so 
fully developed, so evenly adjusted and nicely bal- 
anced, that in all the various and difficult duties of 
military and civil life he never for an instant failed 
to meet the demand which his position and the at- 



ogo REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tendant circumstances made upon him. This was 
the opinion of his contemporaries. His pre-emi- 
nence was felt and recognized by the leaders of the 
savage tribes of America, by the most sagacious 
statesmen and wisest observers in foreign lands, and 
by all of his countrymen who were able to escape 
the influence of passion and to consider passing 
events in the light of pure reason. 

It is the glory of Washington that he was the 
first great military chief who did not exhibit the mili- 
tary spirit ; and in this he has given to his country 
an example and a rule of the highest value. The 
problem of republics is to develop military capacity 
without fostering the military spirit. This Wash- 
ington did in himself, and this also his country has 
done. The zeal of the young men of the Republic 
to enter the military service for the defense of the 
Union, and the satisfaction with which they accepted 
peace and returned to the employments of peace, all 
in obedience to the example of Washington, are his 
highest praise. 

Washington was also an illustration of the axiom 
in government, that the faculties and qualities essen- 
tial to a military leader are the highest endowments 
of a ruler in time of peace ; and the instincts of men 
are in harmony with this historic and philosophic 
truth. The time that has passed, since the public 
career and natural life of Washington ended, has 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 381 

not dimmed the luster of his fame, nor quaHfied in 
the least that general judgment on which he was 
raised to an equality with the most renowned per- 
sonages of ancient and modern times. 

With this estimate, not an unusual nor an exag- 
gerated estimate, I venture to claim for Abraham 
Lincoln the place next to Washington, whether we 
have regard to private character, to intellectual qual- 
ities, to public services, or to the weight of obligation 
laid upon the country and upon mankind. Between 
Washington and Lincoln there were two full gen- 
erations of men ; but, of them all, I see not one who 
can be compared with either. 

Submitting this opinion, in advance of all evidence, 
I proceed to deal with those qualities, opportunities, 
characteristics and services on which Lincoln's claim 
rests for the broad and most enduring fame of which 
I have spoken. We are attracted naturally by the 
career of a man who has passed from the humblest 
Qondition in early life to stations of honor and fame 
in maturer years. With Lincoln this space was the 
broadest possible in civilized life. His childhood was 
spent in a cabin upon a mud floor, and his youth and 
early manhood were checkered with more than the 
usual share of vicissitudes and disappointments. The 
chief blessing of his early life was his step-mother, 
Sally Bush, who, by her affectionate treatment and 
wise conduct, did much to elevate the character of the 

25 



382 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



class of women to which she belonged. His oppor- 
tunities for training in the schools were few, and his 
hours of study were limited. The books that he 
could obtain were read and re-read, and a grammar 
and geometry were his constant companions for a 
time; but his means of education bore no logical 
relation to the position he finally reached as a 
thinker, writer and speaker. Lincoln is a witness, 
for the man William Shakespeare, against those hos- 
tile and illogical critics who deny to him the author- 
ship of the plays that bear his name because they 
cannot comprehend the way of reaching such results 
without the aid of books, teachers and universities. 
When they show similar results reached by the aid 
of books, teachers and universities, or even by their 
aid chiefly, they will then have one fact tending 
to prove that such results cannot be reached with- 
out such aids ; but in the absence of the proof we 
must accept Shakespeare and Lincoln, and confess 
our ignorance of the processes by which their great- 
ness was attained. 

Books, schools and universities are helps to all, 
and they are needed by each and all in the ratio of 
the absence of natural capacity. By the processes of 
reason employed to show that Shakespeare did not 
write Hamlet, it may be proved that Lincoln did not 
compose the speech which he pronounced at Gettys- 
burg. The parallel between Shakespeare and Lin- 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 383 

coin is good to this extent. The products of the pen 
of Lincoln imply a degree of culture in schools which 
he never had, and a process of reasoning upon that 
implication leads to the conclusion that he was not 
the author of what bears his name. We know that 
this conclusion would be false, and we may therefore 
question the soundness of a similar process of rea- 
soning in the case of Shakespeare. 

The world gives too much credit to self-made men. 
Not much is due to those who are so largely endowed 
by nature that they at once outrun their contempo- 
raries who are always on the crutches of books and 
authorities, and but a little more is due to the lar- 
ger class who in isolation and privation acquire the 
knowledge that is gained, usually, only in the schools. 
In the end, however, we judge the man as a whole 
and as a result, for there is no trustworthy analysis by 
which we can decide how much is due to nature, how 
much to personal effort, and how much to circum- 
stances. Of all the self-made men of America, Lin- 
coln owed least to books, schools, and society. Wash- 
ington owed much to these, and all his self-assertion, 
which was considerable, in society, in the army, and 
in civil affairs, was the assertion of a trained man. 
Lincoln asserted nothing but his capacity, when it 
was his duty to decide what was wise and what was 
right. He claimed nothing for himself, in his per- 
sonal character, in the nature of deference from 



384 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Others, and too little, perhaps, for the great office 
he held. The schools create nothing ; they only 
bring out what is ; but as long as the mass of man- 
kind think otherwise, an untrained person like Lin- 
coln has an immense advantage over the scholar in 
the contest for immortality. In this particular, how- 
ever, the instincts of men have a large share of wis- 
dom in them. When we speak of human greatness 
we mean natural, innate faculty and power. We 
distinguish the gift of God from the culture of the 
schools. The unlearned give the schools too much 
credit in the work of developing power and forming 
character ; the learned, perhaps, give them too little. 
But whether judged by the learned or the unlearned, 
Lincoln is the most commanding figure in the ranks 
of self-made men which America has yet produced. 

Mr. Lincoln possessed the almost divine faculty of 
interpreting the will of the people without any ex- 
pression by them. We often hear of the influence 
of the atmosphere of Washington upon the public 
men residing there. It never affected him. He 
was of all men most independent of locality and 
social influences. He was wholly self-contained in 
all that concerned his opinions upon public ques- 
tions and in all his judgments of the popular will. 
Conditions being given, he could anticipate the 
popular will and conduct. When the proceedings 
of the convention of dissenting Republicans, which 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 385 

assembled at Cleveland in 1864, were mentioned to 
him and his opinion sought, he told the story of two 
fresh Irishmen who attempted to find a tree-toad 
that they heard in the forest, and how, after a fruit- 
less hunt, one of them consoled himself and his com- 
panion with the expression, " An' faith it was noth- 
ing but a noise." 

Mr. Lincoln's goodness of nature was boundless. 
In childhood it showed itself in unfeigned aversion 
to every form of cruelty to animal life. When he 
was President it found expression in that memorable 
letter to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had given, irre- 
vocably given, as was. then supposed, five sons to the 
country. The letter was dated November 21, 1864, 
before the excitement of his second election was 
over: 

" Dear Madam : — I have been shown, in the files of 
the War Department, a statement, of the Adjutant- 
General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother 
of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of 
battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any 
words of mine which should attem^j^t to beguile you 
from a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain 
from tendering to you the consoktion that may be 
found in the thanks of the Republic :hey died to save. 
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the 
anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the 
cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the sol- 



386 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

emn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly 
a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 

" Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, 

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
" To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts." 

I imagine that all history and all literature may 
be searched, and in vain, for a funeral tribute so 
touching, so comprehensive, so fortunate in expres- 
sion as this. 

If we have been moved to laughter by a simple 
story and to tears by a pathetic strain, we can under- 
stand what Lincoln was to all, and especially to the 
common people who were his fellows in everything 
except his greatness, when he moved, spoke, and 
acted among them. It would be a reflection upon 
the human race if men did not recognize something 
worthy of enduring fame in one whose kindness and 
sympathy were so comprehensive as to include the 
insect on the one side an(^ the noble, but bereaved, 
mother on the other. To the soldier, General 
Thomas was " Old Holdfast," General Hooker was 
" Fighting Joe," and Mr. Lincoln was " Father Abra- 
ham." These names were due to personal qualities 
which the soldiers observed, admired and applauded. 
Mr. Lincoln was a mirth-making, genial, melancholy 
man. By these characteristics he enlisted sympathy 
for himself at once, while his moral qualities and 
intellectual pre-eminence commanded respect. Mr. 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 387 

Lincoln's wit and mirth will give him a passport to 
the thoughts and hearts of millions who would take 
no interest in the sterner and more practical parts of 
his character. He used his faculties for mirth and 
wit to relieve the melancholy of his life, to parry 
unwelcome inquiries, and, in the debates of politics 
and the bar, to worry his opponents. In debate he 
often so combined wit, satire and statement that his 
opponent at once appeared ridiculous and illogical. 
Mr. Douglas was often the victim of these sallies in 
the great debate for the Senate before the people of 
Illinois, and before the people of the country, in the 
year 1858. Douglas constantly asserted that abolition 
would be followed by amalgamation, and that the 
Republican party designed to repeal the laws of 
Illinois which prohibited the marriage of blacks and 
whites. This was a formidable appeal, to the prej- 
udices of the people of Southern Illinois especially. 
" I protest now and forever," said Lincoln, " against 
that counterfeit logic which presumes that because I 
did not want a negro woman for a slave, I do, neces- 
sarily, want her for a wife. I have never had the least 
apprehension that I or my friends would marry 
negroes if there were no law to keep them from it, 
but as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in 
great apprehension that they might, if there were 
no law to keep them from it, I give him the most sol- 
emn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the 



388 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white 
people with negroes." 

Thus in two sentences did Mr. Lincoln overthrow 
Douglas in his logic and render him ridiculous in his 
position. Douglas claimed special credit for the de- 
feat of the Lecompton bill, although five-sixths of 
the votes were given by the Republican Party. Said 
Lincoln : " Why is he entitled to more credit than 
others for the performance of that good act, unless 
there was something in the antecedents of the Re- 
publicans that might induce every one to expect them 
to join in that good work, and, at the same time.lead- 
ing them to doubt that he would. Does he place 
his superior claim to credit on the ground that he 
performed a good act which was never expected of 
him?" He then gave Mr. Douglas the benefit of a 
specific application of the parable of the lost sheep. 

In the last debate at Alton, October 15, 1858, 
Mr. Douglas proceeded to show that Buchanan was 
guilty of gross inconsistencies of position. Lincoln 
did not defend Buchanan, but after he had stated 
the fact that Douglas had been on both sides of the 
Missouri Compromise, he added: "I want to know 
if Buchanan has not as much right to be inconsistent 
as Douglas has ? Has Douglas the exclusive right 
in this country of being on all sides of all questions f 
Is nobody allowed that high privilege but himself ? 
Is he to have an entire monopoly on that subject?" 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 389 

There are three methods in debate of sustaining 
and enforcing- opinions, and the faculty and facihty 
of using these several methods are the tests of in- 
tellectual quality in writers and speakers. First 
and lowest intellectually, are those who rely upon 
authority. They gather and marshal the sayings 
of their predecessors, and ask their hearers and 
readers to indorse the positions taken, not because 
they are reasonable and right under the process of 
demonstration, but because many persons in other 
times have thought them to be right and reasonable. 
As this is the work of the mere student, and does 
not imply either philosophy or the faculty of reason- 
ing, those who rely exclusively upon authority are in 
the third class of intellectual men. Next, and of a 
much higher order, are the writers and speakers 
who state the facts of a case, apply settled prin- 
ciples to them, and by sound processes of reasoning 
maintain the position taken. But high above all 
are the men who by statement pure and simple, or 
by statement argumentative, carry conviction to 
thoughtful minds. Unquestionably Mr. Lincoln be- 
longs to this class. Those who remember Douglas's 
theory in regard to "squatter sovereignty," which 
he sometimes dignified by calling it the " sacred 
right of self-government," will appreciate the force 
of Lincoln's statement of the scheme in these 
v/ords : "The phrase, 'sacred right of self-govern- 



390 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ment,' though expressive of the only rightful basis 
of any government, was so perverted in the at- 
tempted use of it as to amount to just this : That 
if any one man choose to enslave another, no thh'd 
man shall be allowed to object y 

In the field of argumentative statement, Mr. 
Webster, at the time of his death, had had no rival 
in America; but he has left nothing more exact, 
explicit, and convincing than this extract from 
Lincoln's first speech of the great debate. Here is 
a statement in less than twenty words, If any 07ie 
man choose to enslave a^iother, no third 7na7t shall be 
allowed to object, which embodies the substance of 
the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United 
States in the case of Dred Scott, the theory of the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and exposes the sophistry 
which Douglas had woven into his arguments on 
" squatter sovereignty." 

Douglas constantly appealed to the prejudices of 
the people, and arrayed them against the doctrine 
of negro equality. Lincoln, in reply, after asserting 
their equality under the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, added: "In the right to eat the bread, with- 
out the leave of anybody else, which his own hand 
earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge 
Douglas, and the equal of every living man." 
Douglas often said — and he commanded the cheers 
of his supporters when he said it — " I do not care 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 39 1 

whether slavery Is voted up or voted down." In his 
final speech at Alton, Lincoln reviewed the history 
of the churches and of the government in connection 
with slavery, and he then asked : "Is it not a false 
statesmanship that undertakes to build up a system 
of policy upon the basis of caring nothing about the 
very thing that everybody does care the most 
about ? " He then, in the same speech, assailed 
Douglas's position in an argument, which is but a 
series of statements, and, as a whole, it is, in its logic 
and moral sentiment, the equal of anything in the 
language: " He may say he doesn't care whether an 
indifferent thing is voted up or down, but he must 
logically have a choice between a right thing and a 
wrong thing. He contends that whatever commu- 
nity wants slaves has a right to have them. So they 
have, if it is not a wrong. But if it is a wrong, he 
cannot say people have a right to do wrong. He 
says that, upon the score of equality, slaves should 
be allowed to go into a new territory like other 
property. This is strictly logical, if there is no dif- 
ference between it and other property. If it and 
other property are equal, his argument is entirely 
logical. But if you insist that one is wrong and the 
other right, there is no use to institute a com- 
parison between right and wrong. You may turn 
over everything in the Democratic policy from be- 
ginning to end — whether in the shape it takes on 



392 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the statute-book, in the shape it takes in the Dred 
Scott decision, in the shape it takes in conversation, 
or in the shape it takes in short maxim-like argu- 
ments — it everywhere carefully excludes the idea 
that there is anything wrong in it. That is the real 
issue. That is the issue that will continue in this 
country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas 
and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal strug- 
gle between these two principles, right and wrong, 
throughout the world. They are the two principles 
that have stood face to face from the beginning of 
time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one 
is the common right of humanity ; and the other, the 
divine right of kings. It is the same principle in 
whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same 
spirit that says, ' You work and toil and earn bread, 
and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, 
whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to 
bestride the people of his own nation and live by 
the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as 
an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same 
tyrannical principle." 

To the Democrat who admitted that slavery was 
a wrong, Mr. Lincoln addressed himself thus : "You 
never treat it as a wrong. You must not say any- 
thing about it in the free States, because it is not 
here. You must not say anything about in the slave 
States, because it is there. You must not say any- 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 393 

thing about it in the pulpit, because that is religion, 
and has nothing to do with it. You must not say 
anything about it in politics, because that will dis- 
turb the security of my place. There is no place 
to talk about it as being wrong, although you say 
yourself it is a wrong." 

Among the rude people with whom Lincoln 
passed his youth and early manhood, his personal 
courage was often tested, and usually in support of 
the rights or pretensions of others, or in behalf of 
the weak, the wronged, or the dependent. In later 
years his moral characteristics were subjected to 
tests equally severe. Mr. Lincoln was not an 
agitator like Garrison, Phillips, and O'Connell, and 
as a Reformer he belonged to the class of moderate 
men, such as Peel and Gladstone ; but in no condi- 
tion did he ever confound right with wrong, or speak 
of injustice with bated breath. His first printed 
paper was a plea for temperance ; and his second, a 
eulogy upon the Union. His positive, personal hos- 
tility to slavery goes back to the year 1831, when he 
arrived at New Orleans as a laborer upon a flat- 
boat. " There it was," says Hanks, his companion ; 
'* we saw negroes chained, maltreated, whipped and 
scourged. Lincoln saw it, said nothing much, was 
silent from feeling, was sad, looked bad, felt bad, was 
thoughtful and abstracted. I can say, knowing it, 
that it was on this trip that he formed his opinion of 



394 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

slavery. It run its iron in him then and there, May, 
1 83 1. I have heard him say so often and often." 
In 1850, he said to his partner, Mr. Stuart: "The 
time will come when we must all be Democrats or 
Abolitionists. When that time comes my mind is 
made up. The slavery question can't be compro- 
mised." In 1855, he said : " Our progress in degen- 
eracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation 
we began by declaring that all men are created equal. 
We now practically read it all men are created equal 
except negroes'' In his Ottawa speech of 1858, he 
read an extract from his speech at Peoria, made in 
1854, in these words: "This declared indifference, 
but as I must think real zeal for the spread of slav- 
ery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the 
monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it be- 
cause it deprives our Republican example of its just 
influence in the world, enables the enemies of free in- 
stitutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites, 
causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sin- 
cerity, and, especially, because it forces so many really 
good men among ourselves into an open war with the 
very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticising 
the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that 
there is no right principle of action but self-interest." 
These extracts prepare the reader for the most 
important utterance by Mr. Lincoln previous to his 
elevation to the Presidency. 



LINCOLN LV HISTORY 395 

The Republican Convention of the State of IIH- 
nois met at Springfield, June 17, 1858, and nomi- 
nated Mr. Lincoln for the seat in the Senate of the 
United States then held by Stephen A. Douglas. 
This action was expected, and Mr. Lincoln had pre- 
pared himself to accept the nomination in a speech 
which he foresaw would be the pivot of debate with 
Judge Douglas. That speech he submitted to a 
council of at least twelve of his personal and politi- 
cal friends, all of v/hom advised him to omit or to 
change materially the first paragraph. This Mr. 
Lincoln refused to do, even when challenged by the 
opinion that it would cost him his seat in the Senate. 
It did cost him his seat in the Senate, but the speech 
would have been delivered had he foreseen that it 
would cost him much more. After its delivery, and 
while the canvass was going on, he said to his 
friends : "You may think that speech was a mistake, | 
but I never have believed it was, and you will see \ 
the day when you will consider it was the wisest j 
thing I ever said. If I had to draw a pen across 
and erase my whole life from existence, and I had 
one poor gift or choice left as to what I should save 
from the wreck, I should choose that speech, and 
leave it to the world unerased." These are the 
words that he prized so highly, and which, for the 
time, cost him so much : " If we could first know 
where we are and whither we are tending, we could 



oq5 reminiscences of ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

better judge what to do and how to do it. We are 
now far into the fifth year since a policy was initi- 
ated with the avowed object and confident promise 
of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the 
operation of that policy, that agitation has not only 
not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my 
opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been 
reached and passed. * A house divided against itself 
cannot stand,' I believe this government cannot 
endure permanently, half slave and half free. I do 
not expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do not ex- 
pect the house to fall ; but I do expect it will cease 
to be divided. It will become all one thing or all 
the other ; either the opponents of slavery will arrest 
the further spread of it, and place it where the pub- 
lic mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course 
of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it 
forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the 
States, old as well as new, North as well as South." 
To the pro-slavery, sensitive, prejudiced. Union-sav- 
ing classes it was not difficult to interpret this para- 
graph in a highly offensive sense. The phrase, "A 
house divided against itself cannot stand" was in- 
terpreted as a declaration against the Union. It 
was, in fact, a declaration of the existence of the 
irrepressible conflict. 

Douglas availed himself of the opportunity to ex- 
cite the prejudices of the people, and thus secured 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 397 

his re-election to the Senate. Mr. Lincoln had a 
higher object : he sought to change public sentiment. 
No man ever lived who better understood the means 
of affecting public sentiment, or more highly appreci- 
ated its power and importance. At Ottawa he said : 
" In this and like communities public sentiment is 
everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail ; 
without it nothing can succeed. Consequently, he 
who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he 
who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He 
makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible 
to be executed." 

I have quoted thus freely from Mr. Lincoln that 
we may appreciate his moral courage ; that we may 
rest in the opinion that he was an early, constant, 
consistent advocate of human liberty; and that we 
might enjoy the charm of his transcendently clear 
thought, convincing logic, and power of statement. 
When he became President, and was called to bear 
the chief burden in the struggle for liberty and the 
Union, he was never dismayed by the condition of 
public affairs, nor disturbed by apprehensions for his 
personal safety. He was like a soldier in the field, 
enlisted for duty, and danger was, of course, incident 
to it. I was alone with Mr. Lincoln more than two 
hours of the Sunday next after Pope's defeat in 
August, 1862. That was the darkest day of the sad 
years of the war. McClellan had failed upon the 



^gg REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Peninsula. Pope's army, reinforced by the remains 
of the Army of the Peninsula, had been driven within 
the fortification of Washington. Our losses of men 
had been enormous, but most serious of all was the 
loss of confidence in commanders. The army did 
not confide in Pope, and the authorities did not con- 
fide in McClellan. In that crisis Lincoln surren- 
dered his own judgment to the opinion of the army, 
and re-established McClellan in command. When 
the business to which I had been summoned by the 
President was over — strange business for the time: 
the appointment of assessors and collectors of inter- 
nal revenue — he was kind enough to ask my opinion 
as to the command of the army. The way was thus 
opened for conversation, and for me to say at the 
end that I thought our success depended upon the 
emancipation of the slaves. To this he said : " You 
would not have it done now, would you ? Must we 
not wait for something like a victory?" This was 
the second and most explicit intimation to me of his 
purpose in regard to slavery. In the preceding July 
or early in August, at an interview upon business 
connected with my official duties, he said, " Let me 
read two letters," and taking them from a pigeon- 
hole over his table he proceeded at once to do what 
he had proposed. I have not seen the letters in 
print. His correspondent was a gentleman in Louis- 
iana, who claimed to be a Union man. He tendered 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 399 

his advice to the President in regard to the reor- 
ganization of that State, and he labored zealously to 
impress upon him the dangers and evils of emanci- 
pation. The reply of the President is only impor- 
tant from the fact that when he came to that part of 
his correspondent's letter he used this expression : 
** You must not expect me to give up this govern- 
ment without playing my last card." Emancipation 
was his last card. He waited for the time when two 
facts or events should coincide. Mr. Lincoln was as 
devoted to the Constitution as was ever Mr. Web- 
ster. In his view, a military necessity was the only 
ground on which the overthrow of slavery in the 
States could be justified. Next he waited for a pub- 
lic sentiment in the loyal States not only demanding 
emancipation but giving full assurance that the act 
would be sustained to the end. As for himself, I 
cannot doubt that he had contemplated the policy 
of emancipation for many months, and anticipated 
the time when he should adopt it. At his interview 
with the Chicago clergy he stated the reasons 
against emancipation, and stated them so forcibly 
that the clergy were not prepared to answer them ; 
but the accredited account of the interview contains 
conclusive proof that Mr. Lincoln then contemplated 
issuing the proclamation. It may be remembered by 
the reader that in the political campaign of 1862, 
a prominent leader of the People's Party, the late 



400 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Judge Joel Parker, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
said in public that Mr. Lincoln issued the proclama- 
tion under the influence of the loyal governors who 
met at Altoona in September of that year. As I 
was about to leave Washington in the month of 
October to take part in the canvass, I mentioned to 
the President the fact that such a statement had 
been made. He at once said : " I never thought of 
the meeting of the governors. The truth is just 
this : When Lee came over the river, I made a res- 
olution that if McClellan drove him back I would 
send the proclamation after him. The battle of An- 
tietam was fought Wednesday, and until Saturday I 
could not find out whether we had gained a victory 
or lost a battle. It was then too late to issue the 
proclamation that day, and the fact is I fixed it up a 
little Sunday, and Monday I let them have it." 

Men will probably entertain different opinions of 
one part of Lincoln's character. He not only pos- 
sessed the apparently innate faculty of comprehend- 
ing the tendency, purposes and opinions of masses 
of men, but he observed and measured with accu- 
racy the peculiarities of individuals who were about 
him, and made those individuals, sometimes through 
their peculiarities and sometimes in spite of them, 
the instruments or agents of his own views. Of 
the three chief men in his Cabinet, Seward, Chase 
and Stanton, Mr. Stanton was the only one who 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 4OI 

never thus yielded to this power of the President. 
The reason was creditable alike to the President and 
to Mr. Stanton. Mr. Stanton was frank and fearless 
in his office, devoted to duty, destitute of ambition, 
and uncompromising in his views touching emanci- 
pation and the suppression of the rebellion. The 
popular sentiment of the day made no impression 
upon him. He was always ready for every forward 
movement, and he could never be reconciled to a 
backward step, either in the field or the Cabinet. It 
is no injustice to Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase to say 
that they had ambitions which under some circum- 
stances might disturb the judgment. These ambi- 
tions and their tendencies could not escape the 
notice of the President. 

Mr. Lincoln was indifferent to those matters of 
government that were relatively unimportant ; but 
he devoted himself with conscientious diligence to 
the graver questions and topics of official duty, and 
in the first months of his administration, at a mo- 
ment of supreme peril, by his pre-eminent wisdom, 
of which there remains indubitable proof, he saved 
the country from a foreign war. I refer to the letter 
of instruction to Mr. Adams, written in May, 1861, 
and relating to the proclamation of the Government 
of Great Britain recognizing the belligerent charac- 
ter of the Confederate States. 

In the greatest exigencies his power of judging 



402 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



immediately and wisely did not desert him. On the 
eve of the battle of Gettysburg, General Hooker re- 
signed the command of the army. This act was a 
painful, a terrible surprise to Mr. Stanton and the 
President. Mr. Stanton's account to me was this : 
" When I received the dispatch my heart sank 
within me, and I was more depressed than at any 
other moment of the war. I could not say that any 
other officer knew General Hooker's plans, or the 
position even of the various divisions of the army. 
I sent for the President to come to the War Office 
at once. It was in the evening, but the President 
soon appeared. I handed him the dispatch. As he 
read it his face became like lead. I said, ' What 
shall be done ? ' He replied instantly, ' Accept his 
resignation.' " In secret, and without consulting any 
one else, the President and Secretary of War can- 
vassed the merits of the various officers of the army, 
and decided to place General Meade in command. 
Of this decision General Meade was informed by a 
dispatch sent by a special messenger, who reached 
his quarters before the break of day the next morn- 
ing. It may be interesting to know the grounds 
on which the President decided to promote General 
Meade. 

First — That he was a good soldier, if not a brill- 
iant one. 

Second — That he was a native of Pennsylvania, 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 403 

and that State at that moment was the battle-field 
of the Union. 

Third — The President apprehended that a de- 
mand would be made for the restoration of General 
McClellan, and this he desired to prevent by the 
selection of a man who represented the same politi- 
cal opinions in the army and in the country. 

Mr. Lincoln entertained advanced thoughts and 
opinions upon all worthy topics of public concern ; 
indeed, his opinions were in advance, usually, of his 
acts as a public man. This is but another mode of 
stating the truth, that he possessed the faculty of 
foreseeing the course of public opinion — a faculty 
essential to statesmen in popular governments. 

In 1853, in a campaign letter, he said : " I go for all 
sharing the privileges of government who assist in 
bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admit- 
ting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes 
or bear arms, by no means excluding females." In 
1854, he said : " Labor is prior to and independent 
of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and 
could never have existed if labor had not first ex- 
isted. Labor is the support of capital, and deserves 
much the higher consideration." In April of the 
same year, he said : " I am naturally antislavery. If 
slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot 
remember when I did not so think and feel." In 
his last public utterance he declared himself in 



404 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

favor of extending the elective franchise to colored 
men. 

Thus he died without one limitation in his ex- 
pressed opinions of the rights of men which the 
historian or eulogist will desire to suppress or to 
qualify. It is to be said further of this many-sided 
man, and most opulent in natural resources, that he 
takes rank with the first logicians and orators of 
every age. His mastery over Douglas in the de- 
bate of 1858 was complete. While President, and 
by successive letters, he effectually repelled the at- 
tacks and silenced the criticisms of the New York 
Committee, of which Erastus Corning was the head, 
that condemned illegal arrests and the suspension 
of the writ of habeas corpus; of the Union Com- 
mittee of the State of Illinois, that proposed to 
save the Union if slavery could be saved with it ; 
of the Democratic Convention of the State of Ohio, 
that denounced the arrest of Vallandingham ; and 
of Horace Greeley himself, when he complained of 
the policy the President seemed to be pursuing on 
the subject of emancipation. 

As I approach my conclusion, I ask a judgment upon 
Mr. Lincoln, not as a competitor with Mr. Douglas 
for a seat in the Senate of the United States, but as 
a competitor for fame with the first orators of this 
and other countries, of this and other ages. 

In support of this view I quote the closing para- 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 405 

graph of his first speech in the canvass of 1858. 
" Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and con- 
ducted by its own undoubted friends, those whose 
hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who 
do care for the result. Two years ago the Repub- 
licans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred 
thousand strong. We did this under the single im- 
pulse of resistance to a common danger, with every 
external circumstance against us. Of strange, dis- 
cordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered 
from the four winds, and formed and fought the 
battle through, under the constant, hot fire of a 
disciplined, proud and pampered enemy. Did we 
brave all then to falter now ? Now, when that same 
enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent ? 
The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail ; if we 
stand firm we shall not fail. Wise counsels may ac- 
celerate, or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later 
the victory is sure to come." We all remember his 
simple, earnest, persuasive appeals to the South, in 
his first inaugural address. At the end he says : " I 
am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. 
We must not be enemies. Though passion may 
have strained, it must not break our bonds of affec- 
tion. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from 
every battle-field and patriot grave to every liv- 
ing heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, 
will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again 



^o6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels 
of our nature." There is nothing elsewhere in our 
literature of plaintive entreaty to be compared with 
this. It combines the eloquence of the orator with 
the imagery and inspiration of the poet. But the 
three great papers on which Lincoln's fame will be 
carried along the ages are the proclamation of 
emancipation, his oration at Gettysburg, and his 
second inaugural address. The oration ranks with 
the noblest productions of antiquity, with the works 
of Pericles, of Demosthenes, of Cicero, and rivals 
the finest passages of Grattan, Burke or Webster. 
This is not the opinion of Americans only, but of 
the cultivated in other countries, whose judgment 
anticipates the judgment of posterity. 

When we consider the place, the occasion, the man, 
and, more than all, when we consider the oration it- 
self, can we doubt that it ranks with the first of 
American classics ? That literature is immortal which 
commands a permanent place in the schools of a 
country, and is there any composition more certain 
of that destiny than Lincoln's oration at Gettysburg ? 
" Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought 
forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in 
liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men 
are created equal. Now, we are engaged in a great 
civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation 
so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 407 

are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are 
met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting- 
place of those who have given their lives that that 
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper 
that we should do this. But in a larger sense we can- 
not dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hal- 
low this ground. The brave men, living and dead, 
who struggled here, have consecrated it far above 
our power to add or detract. The world will little 
note nor long remember what we say here, but it 
can never forget what they did here. It is for us, 
the living, rather to be dedicated here to the un- 
finished work that they have thus far so nobly car- 
ried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to 
the great task remaining before us ; that from these 
honored dead we take increased devotion to the 
cause for which they here gave the last full measure 
of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these 
dead shall not have died in vain ; that the nation 
shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and 
that government of the people, by the people, for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth." But if all 
that Lincoln said and was should fail to carry his 
name and character to future ages, the emancipation 
of four million human beings by his single official act 
is a passport to all of immortality that earth can give. 
There is no other individual act performed by any 
person on this continent that can be compared with 



4o8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

it. The Declaration of Independence, the Consti- 
tution, were each the work of bodies of men. The 
Proclamation of Emancipation in this respect stands 
alone. The responsibility was wholly upon Lincoln ; 
the glory is chiefly his. No one can now say whether 
the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution 
of the United States, or the Proclamation of Eman- 
cipation was the highest, best gift to the country and 
to mankind. With the curse of slavery in America 
there was no hope for republican institutions in other 
countries. In the presence of slavery the Declara- 
tion of Independence had lost its power; practically, 
it had become a lie. In the presence of slavery we 
were to the rest of mankind and to ourselves a nation 
of hypocrites. The gift of freedom to four million 
negroes was not more valuable to them than to us ; 
and not more valuable to us than to the friends of 
liberty in other parts of the world. 

In these days, when politicians and parties are odi- 
ous to many thoughtful and earnest-minded persons, 
it may not be amiss to look at Mr. Lincoln as a politi- 
cian and partisan. These he was, first of all and always. 
He had political convictions that were ineradicable, 
and they were wholly partisan. As the rebellion be- 
came formidable, the Republican party became the 
party of the Union ; and as the party of the Union, 
with Mr. Lincoln at its head, it was from first to last 
the only political organization in the country that 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 



409 



consistently, persistently, and without qualification of 
purpose, met, and in the end successfully met, every 
demand of the enemies of the government, whether 
proffered in diplomatic notes or on the field of bat- 
tle. He struggled first for the Union, and then for 
the overthrow of slavery as the only formidable ene- 
my of the Union. These were his tests of political 
fellowship, and he carefully excluded from place 
every man who could not bear them. He accepted 
the great and most manifest lesson of free govern- 
ment, that every wise and vigorous administration 
represents the majority party, and that the best days 
of every free country are those days when a party 
takes and wields power by a popular verdict, and 
guards itself at every step against the assaults of a 
scrutinizing and vigorous opposition. He accepted 
the essential truths that a free government is a po- 
litical organization, and that the political opinions of 
those intrusted with its administration, as to what 
the government should be and do, are of more con- 
sequence to the country than even their knowledge 
of orthography and etymology. As a consequence, 
he accepted the proposition that every place of exec- 
utive discretion or of eminent administrative power 
should be occupied by the friends of the government. 
This, not because the spoils belong to the victors, but 
for the elevated and sufficient reason that the chief 
offices of state are instrumentalities and agencies by 



4IO 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



which the majority carry out their principles, perfect 
their measures, and render their policy acceptable to 
the country. And also for the further reason that 
in case of failure the administration is without excuse. 
The entire public policy of Mr. Lincoln was the nat- 
ural outgrowth of his political principles as a Repub- 
lican. Through the influence of experience and the 
exercise of power the politician ripened into the 
statesman, but the ideas, principles, and purposes of 
the statesman were the ideas, principles, and purposes 
of the partisan politician. In prosecuting the war 
for the Union, in the steps taken for the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves, Mr. Lincoln appeared to follow 
rather than to lead the Republican party. But his 
own views were more advanced usually than those of 
his party, and he waited patiently and confidently for 
the healthy movements of public sentiment which he 
well knew were in the right direction. No man was 
ever more firmly or consistently the representative 
of a party than was Mr. Lincoln, and his acknowl- 
edged greatness is due, first, to the wisdom and jus- 
tice of the principles and measures of the political 
party that he represented, and, secondly, to his fidel- 
ity in every hour of his administration, and in every 
crisis of public affairs, to the principles, ideas and 
measures of the party with which he was identified. 

Having seen Mr. Lincoln as frontiersman, politician, 
lawyer, stump-speaker, orator, statesman and patriot, 
it only remains for us to contemplate him as an his- 



LINCOLN IN HISTORY 4II 

torical personage. First of all, it is to be said that 
Mr. Lincoln is next in fame to Washington, and it 
is by no means certain that history will not assign 
to Lincoln an equal place, and this without any 
qualification of the claims or disparagement in any / 
way of the virtues of the Father of this country. 
The measure of Washington's fame is full, but for / 
many centuries, and over vast spaces of the globe 
and among all peoples passing from barbarism or 
semi-servitude to civilization and freedom, Mr. Lin- 
coln will be hailed as the Liberator. In all gov- 
ernments struggling for existence, his example will 
be a guide and a help. Neither the gift of proph- 
ecy nor the quality of imagination is needed to fore- 
cast the steady growth of Lincoln's fame. At the 
close of the twentieth century the United States 
will contain one hundred and fifty or two hundred 
million inhabitants, and from one-fourth to one-third 
of the population of the globe will then use the Eng- 
lish language. To all these and to all their descend- 
ants Mr. Lincoln will be one of the three great char- 
acters of American history, while to the unnumbered 
millions of the negro race in the United States, in 
Africa, in South America, and in the islands of the 
sea, he will be the great figure of all ages and of 
every nation. His fame will increase and spread with 
the knowledge of Republican institutions, with the 
expansion and power of the English-speaking race, 
and with the deeper respect which civilization will 



412 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



create for whatever is attractive in personal charac- 
ter, wise in the administration of public affairs, just 
in policy, or liberal and comprehensive in the exer- 
cise of constitutional and extra-constitutional powers. 

It was but an inadequate recognition of the char- 
acter and services of Mr. Lincoln that was made by 
the patriots of Rome when they chose a fragment 
from the wall of Servius TuUius and sent it to the 
President with this inscription: "To Abraham Lin- 
coln, President for the second time of the American 
Republic, citizens of Rome present this stone, from 
the wall of Servius Tullius, by which the memory of 
each of those brave asserters of Liberty may be asso- 
ciated. Anno 1865." The final and nobler tribute to 
Mr. Lincoln is yet to be rendered, not by a single city 
nor by the patriots of a single country. A knowledge 
of his life and character is to be carried by civilization 
into every nation and to every people. Under him 
and largely through his acts and influence justice 
became the vital force of the Republic. The war 
established our power. The policy of Mr. Lincoln 
and those who acted with him secured the reign of 
justice ultimately in our domestic affairs. Possess- 
ing power and exhibiting justice, the nation should 
pursue a policy of peace. 

Power, Justice and Peace; in them is the glory of 
the regenerated Republic. 

GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 



XX 

"DEAR TO DEMOCRACY" 

GLAD am I to give even the most brief and 
shorn testimony in memory of Abraham Lin- 
coln. Everything I heard about him authentically, 
and every time I saw him (and it was my fortune 
through 1862 to '65 to see, or pass a word with, or 
watch him, personally, perhaps twenty or thirty 
times*), added to and annealed my respect and love 

* From my Note-book in 1864, at Washington City, I find this memorandum, 
under date of August 12 : 

I see the President almost every day, as I happen to live where he passes to 
or from his lodgings out of town. He never sleeps at the White House during 
the hot season, but has quarters at a healthy location, some three miles north of 
the city, the Soldiers' Home, a United States military establishment. I saw 
him this morning about 8.30 coming in to business, riding on Vermont Avenue, 
near L Street. He always has a company of twenty-five or thirty cavalry, with 
sabres drawn, and held upright over their shoulders. The party makes no great 
show in uniforms or horses. Mr. Lincoln, on the saddle, generally rides a 
good-sized, easy-going gray horse, is dress'd in plain black, somewhat rusty 
and dusty ; wears a black stiff hat, and looks about as ordinary in attire, &c., as 
the commonest man. A lieutenant, with yellow straps, rides at his left, and 
following behmd, two by two, come the cavalry men in their yellow-striped 
jackets. They are generally going at a slow trot, as that is the pace set them 
by the One they wait upon. The sabres and accoutrements clank, and the en- 
tirely unornamental cortege as it trots toward Lafayette Square arouses no sen- 
sation, only some curious stranger stops and gazes. I see very plainly ABRAHAM 
27 



414 



REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



at the passing moment. And as I dwell on what 
I myself heard or saw of the mighty Westerner, and 
blend it with the history and literature of my age, 
and of what I can get of all ages, and conclude 
it with his death, it seems like some tragic play, 
superior to all else I know — vaster and fierier and 
more convulsionary, for this America of ours, than 
Eschylus or Shakspeare ever drew for Athens or for 
England. And then the Moral permeating, under- 
lying all ! the Lesson that none so remote, none so 
illiterate — no age, no class — but may directly or in- 
directly read ! 

Lincoln's dark brown face, with the deep cut lines, the eyes, &c., always to me 
with a latent sadness in the expression. We have got so that we always ex- 
change bows, and very cordial ones. 

Sometimes the President goes and comes in an open barouche. The cavalry 
always accompany him, with drawn sabres. Often I notice as he goes out 
evenings— and sometimes in the morning, when he returns early — he turns off 
and halts at the large and handsome residence of the Secretary of War on K 
Street, and holds conference there. If in his barouche, I can see from my win- 
dow he does not alight, but sits in the vehicle, and Mr. Stanton comes out to 
attend him. Sometimes one of his sons, a boy of ten or twelve, accompanies 
him, riding at his right on a pony. 

Earlier in the summer I occasionally saw the President and his wife, toward 
the latter part of the afternoon, out in a barouche, on a pleasure ride through 
the city. Mrs. Lincoln was dressed in complete black, with a long crape veil. 
The equipage is of the plainest kind, only two horses, and they nothing extra. 
They pass'd me once very close, and I saw the President in the face fully, as 
they were moving slow, and his look, though abstracted, happen'd to be di- 
rected steadily in my eye. He bow'd and smiled, but far beneath his smile I 
noticed well the expression I have alluded to. None of the artists or pictures 
have caught the subtle and indirect expression of this man's face. One of the 
great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is needed. 



"DEAR TO DEMOCRACY" 415 

Abraham Lincoln's was really one of those char- 
acters, the best of which is the result of long trains 
of cause and effect — needing a certain spaciousness 
of time, and perhaps even remoteness, to properly 
enclose them — having unequaled influence on the 
shaping of this Republic (and therefore the world) 
as to-day, and then far more important in the future. 
Thus the time has by no means yet come for a thor- 
ough measurement of him. Nevertheless, we who live 
in his era — who have seen him, and heard him, face 
to face, and are in the midst of, or just parting from, 
the strong and strange events which he and we have 
had to do with, can in some respects bear valuable, 
perhaps indispensable testimony concerning him. 

I should first like to give what I call a very fair 
and characteristic likeness of Lincoln, as I saw him 
and watched him one afternoon in Washington, for 
nearly half an hour, not long before his death. It 
was as he stood on the balcony of the National 
Hotel, Pennsylvania Avenue, making a short speech 
to the crowd in front, on the occasion either of a set 
of new colors presented to a famous Illinois regiment, 
or of the daring capture, by the Western men, of 
some flags from "the enemy," (which latter phrase, 
by the by, was not used by him at all in his remarks.) 
How the picture happened to be made I do not 
know, but I bought it a few days afterward in 
Washington, and it was endorsed by every one 



4i6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

to whom I showed it. Though hundreds of por- 
traits have been made, by painters and photogra- 
phers (many to pass on, by copies, to future times), 
I have never seen one yet that in my opinion de- 
served to be called a perfectly good likeness ; nor do 
I believe there is really such a one in existence. 
May I not say too, that, as there is no entirely com- 
petent and emblematic likeness of Abraham Lincoln 
in picture or statue, there is not — perhaps cannot 
be — any fully appropriate literary statement or sum- 
ming-up of him, yet in existence. 

The best way to estimate the value of Lincoln is 
to think what the condition of America would be to- 
day, if he had never lived — never been President. 
His nomination and first election were mainly acci- 
dents, experiments. Severely viewed, one cannot 
think very much of American Political Parties, from 
the beginning, after the Revolutionary War, down 
to the present time. Doubtless, while they have had 
their uses — have been and are " the grass on which 
the cow feeds " — and indispensable economies of 
growth — it is undeniable that under flippant names 
they have merely identified temporary passions, or 
freaks, or sometimes prejudice, ignorance, or hatred. 
The only thing like a great and worthy idea vitaliz- 
ing a party and making it heroic was the enthusiasm 
in '64 for re-electing Abraham Lincoln, and the rea- 
son behind that enthusiasm. 



'•DEAR TO DEMOCRACY" 417 

How does this man compare with the acknowl- 
edged " Father of his country?" Washington was 
modeled on the best Saxon and Franklin of the age 
of the Stuarts (rooted in the Elizabethan period) — 
was essentially a noble Englishman, and just the 
kind needed for the occasions and the times of 1776- 
'83. Lincoln, underneath his practicality, was far 
less European, far more Western, original, essen- 
tially non-conventional, and had a certain sort of 
out-door or prairie stamp. One of the best of 
the late commentators on Shakespeare (Professor 
Dowden), makes the height and aggregate of 
his quality as a poet to be, that he thoroughly 
blended the ideal with the practical or realistic. If 
this be so, I should say that what Shakespeare did 
in poetic expression, Abraham Lincoln essentially 
did in his personal and official life. I should say 
the invisible foundations and vertebra of his char- 
acter, more than any man's in history, were mystical, 
abstract, moral and spiritual — while upon all of them 
was built, and out of all of them radiated, under the 
control of the average of circumstances, what the vul- 
gar call horse-sense, and a life often bent by temporary 
but most urgent materialistic and political reasons. 

He seems to have been a man of indomitable 
firmness (even obstinacy) on rare occasions, involv- 
ing great points ; but he was generally very easy, 
flexible, tolerant, respecting minor matters. I note 



4i8 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that even those reports and anecdotes intended to 
level him down, all leave the tinge of a favorable 
impression of him. As to his religious nature, it 
seems to me to have certainly been of the amplest, 
deepest-rooted kind. 

But I do not care to dwell on the features pre- 
sented so many times, and that will readily occur to 
every one in recalling Abraham Lincoln and his era. 
It is more from the wish — and it no doubt actuates 
others — to bring for our own sake, some record, 
however incompetent — some leaf or little wreath to 
place, as on a grave. 

Already a new generation begins to tread the 
stage, since the persons and events of the Secession 
War. I have more than once fancied to myself the 
time when the present century has closed and a new 
one opened, and the men and deeds of that contest 
have become vague and mythical — fancied perhaps 
in some great Western city, or group collected 
together, or public festival, where the days of old, of 
1863 and '4 and '5 are discussed — some ancient sol- 
dier sitting in the background as the talk goes on, 
and betraying himself by his emotion and moist eyes 
— like the journeying Ithacan at the banquet of 
King AlcinoiJs, when the bard sings the contending 
warriors, and their battles on the plains of Troy: 

" So from the sluices of Ulysses' eyes, 
Fast fell the tears, and sighs succeeded sighs." 



"DEAR TO DEMOCRACY" 4IQ 

I have fancied, I say, some such venerable reHc of 
this time of ours, preserved to the next or still the 
next generation of America. I have fancied on 
such occasion, the young men gathering around ; the 
awe, the eager questions. " What ! have you seen 
Abraham Lincoln — and heard him speak — and 
touched his hand ? Have you, with your own eyes, 
looked on Grant, and Lee and Sherman ? " 

Dear to Democracy, to the very last ! And 
among the paradoxes generated by America not the 
least curious, was that spectacle of all the kings and 
queens and emperors of the earth, many from re- 
mote distances, sending tributes of condolence and 
sorrow in memory of one raised through the com- 
monest average of life — a rail-splitter and flat-boat- 
man ! 

Considered from contemporary points of view — 
who knows what the future may decide ? — and from 
the points of view of current Democracy and The 
Union (the only thing like passion or infatuation in 
the man was the passion for the Union of These 
States), Abraham Lincoln seems to me the grandest 
figure yet, on all the crowded canvas of the Nine- 
teenth Century, 

\VALT WHITMAN. 



XXI 
"THE GENTLEST MEMORY OF OUR WORLD" 

STRANGE mingling of mirth and tears, of the 
tragic and grotesque, of cap and crown, of Soc- 
rates and Rabelais, of ^sop and Marcus Aurelius, 
of all that is gentle and just, humorous and honest, 
merciful, wise, laughable, lovable and divine, and 
all consecrated to the use of man ; while through 
all, and over all, an overwhelming sense of obli- 
gation, of chivalric loyalty to truth, and upon all 
the shadow of the tragic end. 

Nearly all the great historic characters are im- 
possible monsters, disproportioned by flattery, or 
by calumny deformed. We know nothing of their 
peculiarities, or nothing but their peculiarities. 
About the roots of these oaks there clings none 
of the earth of humanity. Washington is now only 
a steel engraving. About the real man who lived 
and loved and hated and schemed we know but 
little. The glass through which we look at him is 
of such high magnifying power that the features are 
exceedingly indistinct. Hundreds of people are now 
engaged in smoothing out the lines of Lincoln's face 



42 2 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

— forcing all features to the common mold — so that 
he may be known, not as he really was, but, accord- 
ing to their poor standard, as he should have been. 

Lincoln was not a type. He stands alone — no 
ancestors, no fellows, and no successors. He had 
the advantage of living in a new country, of social 
equality, of personal freedom, of seeing in the hori- 
zon of his future the perpetual star of hope. He 
preserved his individuality and his self-respect. He 
knew and mingled with men of every kind ; and, after 
all, men are the best books. He became acquainted 
with the ambitions and hopes of the heart, the means 
used to accomplish ends, the springs of action and 
the seeds of thought. He was familiar with nature, 
with actual things, with common facts. He loved 
and appreciated the poem of the year, the drama of 
the seasons. 

In a new country, a man must possess at least three 
virtues — honesty, courage and generosity. In culti- 
vated society, cultivation is often more important 
than soil. A well executed counterfeit passes more 
readily than a blurred genuine. It is necessary 
only to observe the unwritten laws of society — to be 
honest enough to keep out of prison, and generous 
enough to subscribe in public — where the subscription 
can be defended as an investment. In a new country, 
character is essential ; in the old, reputation is suf- 
ficient. In the new, they find what a man really is ; 



"THE GENTLEST MEMORY OF OUR WORLD" 423 

in the old, he generally passes for what he resembles. 
People separated only by distance are much nearer 
together than those divided by the walls of caste. 

It is no advantage to live in a great city, where 
poverty degrades and failure brings despair. The 
fields are lovelier than paved streets, and the great 
forests than walls of brick. Oaks and elms are 
more poetic than steeples and chimneys. In the 
country is the idea of home. There you see the 
rising and setting sun ; you become acquainted with 
the stars and clouds. The constellations are your 
friends. You hear the rain on the roof and listen 
to the rhythmic sighing of the winds. You are 
thrilled by the resurrection called Spring, touched 
and saddened by Autumn, the grace and poetry of 
death. Every field is a picture, a landscape ; every 
landscape, a poem ; every flower, a tender thought ; 
and every forest, a fairy-land. In the country you 
preserve your identity — your personality. There 
you are an aggregation of atoms, but in the city 
you are only an atom of an aggregation. 

Lincoln never finished his education. To the 
night of his death he was a pupil, a learner, an in- 
quirer, a seeker after knowledge. You have no idea 
how many men are spoiled by what is called educa- 
tion. For the most part, colleges are places where 
pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed. If 
Shakespeare had graduated at Oxford, he might 



42 4 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

have been a quibbling attorney or a hypocritical 
parson. 

Lincoln was a many-sided man, acquainted with 
smiles and tears, complex in brain, single in heart, 
direct as light ; and his words, candid as mirrors, 
gave the perfect image of his thought. He was 
never afraid to ask — never too dignified to admit 
that he did not know. No man had keener wit or 
kinder humor. He was not solemn. Solemnity is a 
mask worn by Ignorance and hypocrisy — it is the 
preface, prologue, and index to the cunning or the 
stupid. He was natural in his life and thought — 
master of the story-teller's art, in illustration apt, in 
application perfect, liberal in speech, shocking Phari- 
sees and prudes, using any word that wit could dis- 
infect. 

He was a logician. Logic is the necessary product 
of intelligence and sincerity. It cannot be learned. 
It is the child of a clear head and a good heart. 
He was candid, and with candor often deceived 
the deceitful. He had intellect without arro- 
gance, genius without pride, and religion without 
cant — that is to say, without bigotry and without 
deceit. 

He was an orator — clear, sincere, natural. He 
did not pretend. He did not say what he thought 
others thought, but what he thought. If you wish 
to be sublime you must be natural — you must keep 



''THE GENTLEST MEMORY OF OUR WORLD" 425 

close to the grass. You must sit by the fireside of 
the heart : above the clouds it is too cold. You 
must be simple in your speech : too much polish 
suggests insincerity. The great orator idealizes the 
real, transfigures the common, makes even the in- 
animate throb and thrill, fills the gallery of the 
imagination with statues and pictures perfect in 
form and color, brings to light the gold hoarded 
by memory, the miser — shows the glittering coin to 
the spendthrift, hope — enriches the brain, ennobles 
the heart, and quickens the conscience. Between 
his lips, words bud and blossom. 

If you wish to know the difference between an 
orator and an elocutionist — between what is felt and 
what is said — between what the heart and brain can 
do together and what the brain can do alone — read 
Lincoln's wondrous words at Gettysburg, and then 
the speech of Edward Everett. The oration of Lin- 
coln will never be forgotten. It will live until lan- 
guages are dead and lips are dust. The speech of 
Everett will never be read. The elocutionists be- 
lieve in the virtue of voice, the sublimity of syntax, 
the majesty of long sentences, and the genius of ges- 
ture. The orator loves the real, the simple, the nat- 
ural. He places the thought above all. He knows 
that the greatest ideas should be expressed in the 
shortest words — that the greatest statues need the 
least drapery. 



42 6 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln was an immense personality — firm but not 
obstinate. Obstinacy is egotism — firmness, heroism. 
He influenced others without effort, unconsciously; 
and they submitted to him as men submit to nature, 
unconsciously. He was severe with himself, and for 
that reason lenient with others. He appeared to 
apologize for being kinder than his fellows. He did 
merciful things as stealthily as others committed 
crimes. Almost ashamed of tenderness, he said and 
did the noblest words and deeds with that charm- 
ing confusion — that awkwardness — that is the perfect 
grace of modesty. As a noble man, wishing to pay 
a small debt to a poor neighbor, reluctantly offers a 
hundred-dollar bill and asks for change, fearing that 
he may be suspected either of making a display of 
wealth or a pretense of payment, so Lincoln hesi- 
tated to show his wealth of goodness, even to the 
best he knew. 

A great man stooping, not wishing to make his 
fellows feel that they were small or mean. 

He knew others, because perfectly acquainted with 
himself. He cared nothing for place, but every- 
thing for principle ; nothing for money, but every- 
thing for independence. Where no principle was 
involved, easily swayed — willing to go slowly, if in 
the right direction — sometimes willing to stop, but 
he would not go back, and he would not go wrong. 
He was willing to wait. He knew that the event 



"THE GENTLEST MEMORY OF OUR WORLD" 427 

was not waiting, and that fate was not the fool of 
chance. He knew that slavery had defenders, but 
no defense, and that they who attack the right must 
wound themselves. He was neither tyrant nor 
slave. He neither knelt nor scorned. With him, 
men were neither great nor small, — they were right 
or wrong. Through manners, clothes, titles, rags 
and race he saw the real — that which is. Beyond 
accident, policy, compromise and war he saw the 
end. He was patient as Destiny, whose unde- 
cipherable hieroglyphs were so deeply graven on 
his sad and tragic face. 

Nothing discloses real character like the use of 
power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most 
people can bear adversity. But if you wish to 
know what a man really is, give him power. This 
Is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, 
having almost absolute power, he never abused it, 
except upon the side of mercy. 

Wealth could not purchase, power could not awe 
this divine, this loving man. He knew no fear ex- 
cept the fear of doing wrong. Hating slavery, 
pitying the master — seeking to conquer, not persons, 
but prejudices — he was the embodiment of the self- 
denial, the courage, the hope, and the nobility of a 
nation. He spoke, not to inflame, not to upbraid, 
but to convince. He raised his hands, not to 
strike, but in benediction. He longed to pardon. 



428 REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

He loved to see the pearls of joy on the cheeks 
of a wife whose husband he had rescued from 
death. 

Lincoln was the grandest figure of the fiercest 
civil war. He is the gentlest memory of our world. 

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 



THE END 



"^^'^^'^ 



